Stammering and stuttering : their nature and treatment

BOSTON UNIVERSITY
LIBRARIES

\^

Ol

S T A M M E R I N G

AND

STUTTERING,

THEIR

NATURE AND TREATMENT,

BY

JAMES HUNT, PH.D., F.S.A., F.R.S.L. F.E.S.,

[Honorary Secretary of the Ethnological Society of London.)

FOREIGN ASSOCIATE OF THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF PARIS,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OP THE UPPER HESSE SOCIETY

FOR NATURAL AND MEDICAL SCIENCE, AUTHOR OP

A "manual of THE PHILOSOPHY OF

VOICE AND SPEECH,"

ETC., ETC.

247 *

LONDON:

LOXGIMAN, GREEN, LONGIMAN, A.ND ROBERTS,
PATERXOSTER ROW.

MDCCCLXI.

% j

LANGUAGE IS TO THE MIND WHAT BEAUTY IS TO THE
BODY."

Aristides the Rhetorician.

TO MY PUPILS.

To you, my dear pupils, who have felt the physical
and mental pangs attending impeded utterance, and the
feeling of relief when the ' thoughts that breathe ' readily
find vent ' in words that burn,' I dedicate this volume.

I cheerfully acknowledge the many tokens of gratitude I
have received from you, and I am equally thankful that it
has been my privilege to remove or alleviate your infirmity ,
so that you are now enabled to do the work assigned to
you in this world.

That you may succeed and prosper in the respective paths
you have chosen, will always remain the sincere wish of

Your faithful Friend,

Ort House, near Hastings. JAMES HUNT.

December, 1860,

PREFACE

The third edition of my " Treatise on the Cure of
Stammering" being out of print, I have embraced this
opportunity of issuing the present work in lieu of
another edition of the Treatise. Though a portion of
the latter is necessarily embodied in this volume,
yet the whole has been so altered and so many addi-
tions and, I trust, improvements made, that it may be
considered as essentially a new book. The reader may
now search without disappointment for every phase of
defective utterance, as the present volume contains, in
a condensed form, a comprehensive survey of nearly all
theories and remedies proposed in relation to impedi-
ments of speech, from the earliest period to the present
time.

For reasons stated in the text, it is not pretended
tliat a mere perusal of these pages will enable afflicted
persons to cure themselves ; but they certainly will
derive from it everv information as to the nature of

their infirmity, as well as the conviction that im-
pediments of speech, so long held to be incurable, are
as amenable to treatment as other disorders of the
human frame.

One of the main objects of this work is, moreover, to
impress on parents and guardians the great importance
of meeting the evil in embryo, so. as to prevent it
taking root.

In expressing, finally, my acknowledgments for the
favourable reception my former contributions to this
subject have met with from the Press, the Medical Pro-
fession, and the Public generally, I may be allowed to
add that it has been my anxious desire to render this
little volume as complete as possible, in order to make
it more worthy of the favour bestowed on its pre-
decessors.

JAMES HUNT.

Ore House, near Hastings,

December, 1860.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

Introduction.

Impediments of Speech a real affliction — Production
of Voice and Speech — The Vocal Cords — The
Organs of Articulation — The Principal Nerves
distributed upon the Vocal and Articulating Ap-
paratus— Alalia and Dyslalia — Synonyms ex-
pressive of Impediments of Speech in various
languages ...... Page 1

CHAPTER n.

Stammering and Stuttering Defined. ,/

The Meaning of Words — Stammering as contra-dis-
tinguished from Stuttering — Stammering and its
Causes — Consonantal Stammering — Action of the
Velum — The Chief Causes of Stammering — Stut^
tering — Vowel Stuttering — Consonantal Stuttering
Principal Causes of Stuttering . Page 11

CHAPTER III.

Minor Defects of Articulation.

Defective Enunciation of the Consonant R — The Gut-
tural and the Lingual R — Alcihiades — The Netv-
castle burr — Demosthenes — Method for the Re-
moval of the Defect — Affected Rhotacism —
Sigmatism — Rhinism — Cluttering and Pattering ^ Page 25

Vm CONTENDS.

CHAPTER IV.

Statistics ok Psp:llism.

Number of Stutterers and Stammerers — The Female
Sex — Injinence of Languages on Impediments of
Speech — Stuttering among Savages . . Page 35

CHAPTER V.

External Influences ox Articulation.

Hereditary Transmission — Influence ofTemjjerature
— Temperament — Psijchical Injluences — The
Emotions — Illustrative Cases — Remarks on cer-
tain received Opinions in relation to Stamynerinq
and Stuttering Page 40

CHAPTER VI.

Historical Review of the Chief Theories and
Modes of Treatment.

First Period

First Scripture Records — Herodotus — Aristotle —
Hippocrates — Plutarch — Demosthenes — Celsus —
Galenus — Meaning of Terms . . . Page 55

CHAPTER VII.

Historical Review, &c.

Second Period.

Mercurialis — Bacon — Amman — Sauvages — Frank
Ita rd — Deleau — Serres — Rullier — 3Ic Cormac —
Hervez de Chegouin — Arnott — Midler — Schul-
thess — Bell — Voisin — Marshall Hcdl — Lichtinger
— American Theory and Method — Jourdant —
Carpenter Pa(;e Qb

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER Yirr.

Surgical Operations.

Galen — Aetius — Fahricius Hildanm — Diefferibacli
Frorlep — Phillpp and Velpeau — Amussat — Bon-
net — Petreipiin — Lang^ihacli — The American
.Surgeons — The English Surgeons — Danger and
Usclessness of these Operations — Dr. Claessen —
Summary of Operations .... Page 110

CHAPTER IX.

Is PsELLisM A Disease ?

The late Mr. HnnVs Opinion — Gellius-Ulpian —
Organic Defects — Cases — Psellism and Chorea —
Treatment of Chorea in France — Psellism in some
Cases the Cause and not the Effect of Disease, Page 120

CHAPTER X.

System of the late Mr. Hunt and Peactice
OF the Author.

Secret Remedies — System of Thomas Hunt — State-
ment of the Author — Benefit derived from the
Perusal of Written Instructions — Self-cure — Re-
marks on the elder HunVs System — Treatment —
Psychical Treatment — How to Detect Organic Mal-
formation— Effects of the Removal of the Im-
pediment Page 129

CHAPTER XI.
jVIanagement of Stuttering Children.

Ihe Flogging System — Joseph Frank — When Stam-
mering is first noticed — Importance of Meeting the
Evil at the Outset — Elocution — Relapses — Re-
marks by Dr, Warren— Concluding Remarks^ Page 145

CONTENTS.

Appendix A,

Memoir of the late Thomas Hunt — Dr. Forhes and
Mr. Liston on Mr. Hunfs System — Messrs.
Chambers and Forster — Death of Mr. Hunt-^
Pretenders to his System ^ . . . Page 156

Appendix B.

Hints to Stammerers ..... Page 167

Appendix C.

Testimonials, ^x Page 172

CORRIGENDA.
Pace 40.— Heading of Chapter Toa External Influences of
Articxdation read External Ivflxienccs ox Articulation.
Page 71.— Bottom line for Medicals read Medicales.

CHAPTER I.

INTEODUCTION

Among the many calamities incidental to human nature
there are few so distressing as confirmed stuttering,
especially that variety which is attended with mus-
cular contortions. Those persons who have only
occasionally met with cases of defective utterance in
general society, can have but a faint idea of the agony
of its victims, unless they have witnessed its effects in the
domestic circle, or in subjects in whose welfare they-
feel interested. It is, indeed, a melancholy spectacle to
see a youth, born to a good position, of refined intel-
lect, possessing extensive information, seemingly des-
tined to adorn society, and yet, though so highly
gifted, unable to give oral expression to his thoughts,
without inflicting pain on those who listen ^to him, or

B

2 STAMMERING AND STTJTTEKING.

subjecting himself to ridicule ; for, while the deaf-mute
is pitied, the stutterer is generally laughed at.^

But not only is the victim of defective utterance
debarred from the pleasures of social intercourse, he
must also give up all hope of professional success, at
the bar, the pulpit, the senate, and the chair, and
must strike out for himself some new path for which,
perhaps, neither his talent nor inclination fit him.

Nor is an impediment of speech less distressing
when it affects a young female. The adage of Horace,
— " Foeminaa verba hatha decent^'' — that stammering
is becoming in females is, if not sheer irony, a poetical
license. It is just possible that a slight singularity
of enunciation may serve to draw attention to other
graces a yoimg lady may possess ; but certain it is,
that confirmed stuttering throws all the enchantments
of youth and beauty into the shade, and must even-
tually blight her happiness.

A popular author has well depicted this distressing
affliction in the following verses*. —

* To laugh at the mi; fortunes of our fellow-creatures is
certainly very wrong, but so ludicrous are the grimaces of
most stutterers, that it is next to impossible not to laugh them
in the face. The lud an stage had, in ray time, a special actor
(/7 tartaglia) to play the part of the stutterer." (P/a.r. Med.
Univ. J. Frank).

INTRODUCTION.

Tlie Stammerer's Complaint*

" Has't ever seen an eagle chained to the earth ?
A restless panther to his cage immured ?
A SAvift trout by the wily fisher checked ?
A wild bird hopeless strain its broken wings r"

'* Or ever felt, at the dark dead of night,
Some undefined and horrid incubus,
Press down the very soul, and paralyse
The limbs in their imaginary flight
From shadowy terrors in unhallowed sleep :"
*****

" Then thou can'st picture — ay, in sober truth —
In real, unexaggerated truth —
The constant galling, festering chain that binds
Captive my mute interpreter of thought ;
The seal of lead enstamped upon my lips,
The load of iron on my labouring chest,
The mocking demon, that at every step,
Haunts me, and spurs me on — to burst in silence.

' I scarce would wonder if a godless man
(I name not him whose hope is heavenward),
A man whom lying vanities hath scath'd
And harden' d from all fear — if such an one,
By this tyrannical Argus goaded on,
Were to be wearied of his very life.
And daily, hourly foiled in social converse
By the slow simmering of disappointment.
Become a sour'd and apathetic being,
Were to feel rapture at the approach of Death,
And long for his dark hope— annihilation,"

* Ballads for the Times. By Martin Tupper.

4 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

Production oj Speech.

The production of speech is effected by the conjoint
agency of the respiratory, vocal, and articulating
organs. ^'Hie function of respiration may be carried on
independent of articulation ; but voice and speech
cannot be produced without the action of the respira-
tory organs.

The respiratory apparatus includes the lungs, the
trachea (windpipe), the rU^s, and all the muscles con-
nected with them, the diaphragm and the abdominal
muscles.

The production of the voice takes place in the larynx
— a cartilaginous box situated at the anterior part of
the neck on the top of the windpipe, with which it is
connected by membranes and ligaments. On looking
downwards into the interior of the larynx, there may
be observed on each side two folds of the mucous
lining membrane. These folds, which are composed of
highly elastic tissue, have received the name of vocal
cords or vocal ligaments.

The inferior membranes are the organs chiefly con-
cerned in the production of voice ; hence they
are called the true vocal cords, while the superior
membranes are termed the false vocal cords. The

INTRODUCTION. 5

narrow opening between the true vocal cords is called
the rima glottidis (chink of the glottis) or simply the
glottis.

The vocal cords are acted upon by a variety of mus-
cles, which have the power of shortening, elongating,
or stretching them, by which the varieties of pitch are
produced. But though all the fundamental sounds are
produced in the larynx, they may, by the action of the
organs between the glottis and the external apertures,
such as the pharynx, the soft palate, the tongue, the
teeth, &c., be so modified as to become articulate
sounds — a combination of which constitutes speech.

The muscles by which articulation is effected are,
at first, only partially subject to the will. Thus we
have a control over the movements of the lips, the
cheeks, and the greater portion of the muscles of the
tongue ; but over the muscles of the pharynx, the soft
palate, and those muscles of the tongue which carry its
root upwards or downwards, our power is not so com-
plete.

" We may tell the patients," observes Magendie " to
depress the tongue because it hides the tonsils ; they
make many efforts, and it is more by chance than by
volition that the action is obtained. If they are desired
to raise the velum, the will has scarcely any power.

6 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

It is the same with regard to the production of sounds
in the larynx and in speaking. The voice is produced,
Ave articulate without exactly knowing what movements
are passing in the larynx or in the mouth. This is one
of the marvellous results of animal organisation.
This perfect mechanism, by which the most compli-
cated acts are executed is not subject to the will ; an
admirable instinct presides, the perfection of which
will always remain beyond human ken. It is this
instinct which presides over the innumerable move-
ments requisite for the production of voice and speech."

These opinions of Magendie have been much can-
vassed ; but they are in the main correct. Magendie
does not say, as he is represented, that the muscles of
the root of the tongue, the soft palate, and the pha-
rynx are not under our control, but only that they are
not completely so. They may thus be considered as
involuntary muscles in the act of deglutition ; but they
are completely under the influence of the will of a per-
fect speaker or singer, although, like an acrobat, he
may not be cognisant of the state of the particular
muscles called into motion, nor of the mode by wliich
he effects their harmonious action.

The principal nerves upon which the healthy action
of the vocal and articulating apparatus depends are : —

INTRODUCTION. 7

The inferior laryngeal branch of the 10th pair,
{Pneumo-gastric) called, from its peculiar reflex course
to the larynx, the recurrent nerve, supplying most of
the muscles of the larynx.

2. The glosso-pharyngeal, supplying the tongue and
the pharynx.

3. The facial nerve {portio dura), by which the
movements of the face and the lips are regulated.

4. The hypoglossal or lingual nerve, the principal
branches of which are distributed to the tongue, of
which it is the principal motor; to which must be
added the phrenic nerve, supplying the diaphragm, and
in fact, most of the nerves connected with respiration.

All the muscles supplied by these nerves must act in
harmony in the production of speech ; and a want of
control over the emission of voluntary power to one of
these muscles may afiect a number of other muscles
with which they are in the habit of acting con-
jointly."^'

"We thus perceive that the process of utterance is
determined by a variety of nervous tracts upon which

* For a minute description of all the organs concerned in
vocalisation and articulation, the reader is referred to the
Author's work, Philosophy of Voice and Speech. Longman and
Co.. 1859.

8 STAMMEEING AND STUTTEEING.

the activity of the muscles of the abdomen, the thorax,
the larynx, the pharynx, the tongue, and the face
depends. Though each of these organs has its pecu-
liar functions, they must act synchronously, or in certain
successions. If, then, their association be interrupted
by an altered condition of any of the respective nerves
or muscles, the emission of certain sounds and their
articulation, becomes impeded.

Speech, then, is articulated voice ; but the instant
of time which intervenes between the formation of the
sound in the larynx, and its articulation in the cavity
of the mouth is so short, that it can scarcely be appre-
ciated, hence the production of voice and speech appear
as synchronous phenomena.
(^The perfection of speech depends :

1. On the development of the mind.

2. On the healthy state of the vocal and articulating
apparatus.

( 3. On the right use of all the organs concerned in
the production of voice and articulate sound.

The entire deprivation of speech may result from
either of the following causes :
. 1. From imbecility of mind, as in perfect idiocy.
2. From deafness, congenital, or acquired, and
* /3. From serious defects in the organs of speech.

INTKODIJCTION.

The state technically called Alalia,"^ or mutelsin, does
not any further concern us, the subject of this
treatise being Dyslalia,] which consists, either in the
impossibility or difficulty of correctly forming and
enunciating certain articulate sounds, or of properly
conjoining the elementary sounds for the purposes of
distinct utterance. Dyslalia thus embraces every
species of defective utterance, each appearing under a
variety of forms.

Synonyms expressive of impediments of speech in general
in various languages.

Hebeevt. — Kobad peh (slow of speech); loag (to

stammer) ; eleg (a stutterer).
Greek. — Psellismos ; Traulismos ; Ischnophonia ;

Battarismos.
Latin. — Balbuties ; blaesitas ; haesitantia linguae.
Fkench.— Begayer ; barbouiller ; balbutier ; bre-

douiller.
Italian. — Balbetare; tartaliagre ; scingulatio.

* A, priv. lalia, speech. See the chapter on deaf-dumbness,
Philosophy of Voice a7id Speech. Longman and Co., 1859.

t Drjs, difficult; lalia, speech.

10 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

Spanish. — Tartamudear.

Gaelic. — Gaggach ; gagganach (a stutterer) ; man-

dach (lisping) ; briot (chitter-chatter).
Anglo-Saxon. — Stomettan ; stamer ; pblips ; melyst.
German. — Stammela; stottern; anstossen.
English. — Stammer; stut; stutter; lisp.

CHAPTER ir.

STAMMERING AND STUTTERING DEFINED.

THE MEANING OF WORDS.*

" When I began to examine the extent and cer-
tainty of our understanding, I found that it had so near
a connection with words that, unless their force and
manner of signification were first well observed, there
would be very little said clearly and pertinently con-
cerning knowledge."

" He that shall consider the errors and obscurity, the
mistakes and confusion that are spread in the world
by an ill-use of words, will find some reason to doubt
whether language, as it has been employed, has contri-
buted more to the improvement or hindrance of know-
ledge among mankind,"

" I know there are not words enough in our language

* Extracts from Locke's Essay on the Human Understanding.

12 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

to answer all the variety of ideas that enter into man's
discourses and reasonings. But this hinders not that
when he uses any term he may have in his mind a
determined idea, which he makes it the sign of, and to
which he should keep it steadily annexed during that
discourse."

It will presently appear how forcibly these just
remarks of our great philosopher apply to our subject.

Stammering as contra-distinguished from Stuttering.

The terms "stammering" and "stuttering" are in
this country synonymously used to designate all kinds
of defective utterance. In no English M'ork written
upon this subject has the exact discrimination between
these disorders, which diflfer both in kind and in origin,
been laid down with scientific correctness. From this
confusion of terms have arisen many errors in theory
and in practice, for no treatment can be efficacious
unless our diagnosis be correct.

It is, therefore, requisite that the distinctive cha-
racter of each affection should be clearly defined at the
very outset.

Stammering {per se) is characterised by an inability or
difficulty of properly enunciating some or many of the

STAMMERING AND STUTTERING DEFINED. 13

elementary speech-sounds, accompanied or not, as the
case may be, by a slow, hesitating, more or less indis-
tinct delivery, but unattended with frequent repetitions
of the initial sounds, and consequent convulsive efforts
to surmount the difficulty.

Stuttering, on the other hand, is a vicious utterance,

manifested by frequent repetitions of initial or other

elementary sounds, and always more or less attended

with muscular contortion^.

Having thus concisely stated the distinctive mark of

each disorder, I proceed to consider them in their

individual characters.

Stammering and its Causes.

(. Vowel Stammering. — The belief that stammering
occurs only in the pronunciation of consonants is cer-
tainly erroneous ; the vowels are equally subject to this
defect, though not to the same extent as the conso-
nants. The proximate causes of defective vowel
sounds, may have their seat e'ither in the vocal ajjpa-
ratus, or in the oral canal. The original sounds may
be deficient in quality, from an affection of the vocal
ligaments, as in hoarseness ; or the sounds may be
altered in the buccal and nasal cavities, from defects,

14 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

or an improper use of the velum ; in which cases tho
vowels are frequently aspirated. Enlargement of the
tonsils, defective lips and teeth, may also influence the
enunciation of the vowels. But the whole speech-
apparatus may be in a healthy state, and yet the enun-
ciation of the vowels may be faulty, from misemploy-
ment, or from defective association of the various organs
upon which the proper articulation of the vowels
depends. In some cases the faulty pronunciation may
be traced to seme defect in the organ of hearing.

Defective enunciation of Consonants.

Consonantal Stammering may, like that of the vowels,
be the result of an organic affection, either of the vocal
apparatus, or of the organs of articulation. When, for
instance, the soft palate, either from existing apertures
or inactivity of its muscles, cannot close the posterior
nares, so that the oral canal may be separated from the
nasal tube, speech acquires a nasal timbre, and the
articulation of many consonants is variously affected.
B and p then assume the sound of an indistinct m ;
f/and t sound somewhat like n ; and g and k like ng.
The action of the velum during speech is thus des-
cribed by Sir Charles Bell.

STAMMEKING AND STUTTEr.ING DEFINED 15

" In a person whom I had the pain of attending long
after the bones of the face were lost, and in whom I
I could look down behind the palate, I saw the oper-
ation of the vchim palati. During speech it was in
constant motion ; and when the person pronounced the
explosive letters, the velum rose convex, so as to inter-
rupt the ascent of breath in that directon ; and as the
lips parted, or the tongue separated from the teeth or
palate, the velum recoiled forcibly."

On the other hand, closure of the nasal tube either
from a common cold or other obstructions, affects the
articulation of m, n, n^, which then sound nearly as
b, d, g, hard. {Sec Rhinism).

The Chief Causes of Stammering.

The variety of defects which constitute stammering
result either from actual defective organisation or
from functional disturbance. Among organic defects
may be enumerated : hare-lip, cleft-palate, abnormal
length and thickness of the uvula, inflammation and
enlargement of the tonsils, abnormal size and tumours
oC|he tongue, tumours in the buccal cavity, want or
defective position of the teeth, &c.

Dr. Ashburner, in his work on Dentition, mentions

16 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

a very curious case of a boy who, though not deaf,
could not speak. This he attributed to the smallness
of the jaws, which taking at length a sudden start in
growth by which the pressure being taken off from the
dental nerves, the organs became free, and the boy
learned to speak. Considering that the teeth play but
a subordinate part in articulating — for all the speech
sounds, including even the dentals, may be pronounced
without their aid, as is the case in toothless age — it is
certainly not a little singular that the mere pressure
on the dental nerves should produce such an eifect. It
is very possible that in this case the motions of the
lower jaw and of the tongue were impeded, but even
then, it is not easy to account for the fact that the
child never attempted to articulate, however imper-
fectly.

When the organs are in a normal condition, and the
person is unable to place them in a proper position
to produce the desired effect, the affection is said to be
functional. -Debility, paralysis, spasms of the glottis,
lips, &c., owing to a central or local affection of the
nerves, habit, imitation, Sec, may all more or less tend
to produce stammering.

From these observations it anay be inferred that
stammering is either idiopathic, when, arising from

STAMMERING AND STUTTERING DEFINED. 17

causes icithin the vocal and articulating apparatus ; or
it is symptomatic, when, arising from cerebral irritation,
paralysis, general debility, intoxication, &c. Children
stammer, partly from imperfect development of the
organs of speech, want of control, deficiency of ideas,
and imitation, or in consequence of cerebral and ab-
dominal affections. The stammering, or rather falter-
ing of old people chiefly arises from local or general
debility. The cold stage of fever, intoxication, loss of
blood, narcotics, may all produce stammering. Stam-
mering is idiopathic and permanent in imbecility,
when the slowness of thought keeps pace with the
imperfection of speech. It may also be transitorily
produced by sudden emotions. Persons gifted with
great volubility, when abruptly charged with some
real or pretended delinquency may only be able to
stam7ner out an excuse.

Stutteri7ig.

The main feature of stuttering consists in the
difficulty in conjoining and fluently enunciating syl-
lables, words,~and sentences. The interruptions are
more or less frequent, the syllables or words being
thrown out in jerks. Hence the speech of stutterers has

18 STAMMEKING AND STUTTERING.

been by Shakspeare* (and by Plutarch before him)
aptly compared to the pouring out of water from a
bottle with a long neck, which either flows in a stream,
or is interoiittent ; the patient in the former case, feeling
that his glottis is open, endeavours to pour out as many
words as possible before a new interruption takes place.
The stoppage of the sound may take place at the second
or third syllable of a word, but occurs more frequently
at the first, and the usual consequence is, that the begin-
ning of a syllable is several times repeated until tlie
difficulty is conquered. The stutterer, unless he be at
the same time a stammerer, j which is now and then the
case, has generally no difficulty in articulating the ele-
mentary sounds/in whiqh respect he differs from the
latter ; it is in the combination of these sounds in th^
formation of words and senteiices that his infirmity
consists.

Stuttering does not obtain to the same degree in all
persons. In the most simple cases the affection is but
little perceptible ; the person speaks nearly without in-

* "I pr'ythee, tell me, who is it ? quickly, and speak apace.
I would thou could' St stammer, that thou might' st pour this
concealed man out of thy mouth, as wine comes out of a narrow
mouthd bottle, either too much at once, or none at all. I
pr'ythee take the cork out of thymoutli, that I may drink thy
tidings." As You Like it. Act 3. iSc. 2.

CHAPTER III.

MINOR DEFECTS OF AETICDLATIOK

Defective enunciation of the consonant r. — RJiotacism.
French, Grasseyement, parler gras. English, ra^/Z/w^,
burring. German, Schnarren.

The mechanism in the production of this consonant
is very complicated, requiring considerable efforts of
various organs.* This may be one of the reasons why
in some languages, us for instance in the Chinese, it is
altogether wanting, and I substituted for it. The con-
sonant may be produced in two ways, in front or behind ;
so that we have a lingual r, and a guttural r. The
former is the result when the tip of the tongue touches
and vibrates against the hard palate, while the latter,
or the guttural r, is produced by the contact between
the posterior part of the tongue and the soft palate,
when the vibration of the uvula is effected by the
passing air current. The lingual r is considered as the

* The difficulty of articulation in the various races of
men is very curious, e.g., it was noticed long ago by Capt.
Cook, Sir Joseph Banks, and others, that the Negro could
pronounce any English word, while the Polynesians could not
pronounce any English word of more than one syllable.

26 STAMMEIUXCx AND STUTTERING.

legitimate speech-sound, wliilst the guttural enunciation
is looked upon as a fault, especially in public speakers.
From the difficulty of its enunciation, r is the last
letter children learn to articulate ; they at first pro-
nounce I instead of it until at lengh the sound is
mastered.

The defective enunciation of this consonant has no''
escaped the notice of the ancients. Plutarch says of
Alcibiades " He had a lisping^' in his speech, which
became him, and gave a grace and persuasive tone to
his discourse." Aristophanes, in those verses wherein
he ridicules Theorus, takes notice that Alcibiades
lisped, for instead of calling him corax (raven) he
called him colax (flatterer), from whence the poet takes
occasion to observe that the term in that lisping pro-
nunciation too was applicable to him. With this
agrees the satirical description which Archippus gives
of the son of Alcibiades —

" With sauntering step to imitate his father,
The vain youth moves ; his loose robe wildly floats ;
He bends the neck — he lisps. "f
The correct articulation of r seems to have been one

* The translation of lisping is scarcely correct according to
the meaning we attach to the word ; the original is trauloteta.
Traulos, traulotes, evidently refer to the inability of articu_
lating the letter r, though traulizo, traulismosare frequently
us ed for stammering in general.

t Langhorn's Plutarch.

MINOR DEFECTS OF AUTIOU L-YTION". 21

of the difficulties encountered by Demosthenes. Cicero'^
said, his speech was so inarticulate that he was unable
to pronounce the first letter of the art he studied, viz.,
Rhetoric. By practice he effected so much that no
one is thought to have spoken more distinctly. Demos-
thenes was, therefore, not of opinion that the defective
enunciation of r gives, as Plutarch observes, a per-
suasive turn to a discourse. The fact is, that though
tolerated in an Alcibiades and in a pretty girl, rattling
is a grave fault in a public speaker, sometimes very
disagreeable to listen to, and in some cases insupportable.
Khotacism is more common among the northern than
among the southern nations. The defect is rarely met
with among Spaniards and Italians. Owing chiefly to
imitation there are whole provinces which use the
guttural r. In our own country, we may mention
Northumberland (the Newcastle burr)f It is com-
paratively rare that a person can neither pronounce
the guttural nor the lingual r ; but such instances do

* " Demosthenes quum ita balbus esset, iit ejus ipsius artis
cui studeret (sc. rhetoricae) primam literam (so. r.) non posset
dicere." Cicero adds, " perfecit meditando ut nemo planius
esse locutus piitaretur."

t In some places it is universal, as in Denmark, in Marseilles,
and also in Paris, where the enunciation of the r seems to
some extent subject to the fashion of t!ie day.

28 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

occur. The main cause of the production of the
guttural, instead of the lingual r is, that the tongue
is kept in a convex position, and vibrates at the base
instead of being concave towards the palate, and
vibrating the tip of the tongue against the roof.
Talma, the celebrated French actor, proposed the
following method for the removal of this defect :
Choose for the first exercises a word in which there
is but one r, preceded by a t, — travail for instance.
Write tdavail, by substituting d for r. The pupil will
then pronounce t and d separately thus — /-, d-, avail ;
insensibly he will add the mute e and pronounce te-da-
vail ; by inducing him to pronounce more rapidly he
will nearly drop the mute e and say tdavail. The
pupil must now be urged to pronounce as rapidly as
possible, uniting the sound of t with that of c?, giving
more force to the articulation of t. By this pro-
ceeding, the lingual r is insensibly articulated, seem-
ingly produced by the rapid union of t and d: Other
exercises must follow until the vicious habit is aban-
doned. This method is said to have been, long before,
used to teach the production of r in the Institution for
Deaf-mutes in Erfurt. By this simple method, observes
Fournier, who described it, numbers of cures have
been efiected, and he cites as an instance, the pretty

MINOR DEFECTS OF AIiTICUL.^.TION. 29

and accomplished actress, Mile. St. Phal, who had,
owing to her defective articulation of r, to retire from
the stage for a time. When she re-appeared adds
the gallant professor, her enunciation was so much
changed that she would not have been recognised by
the spectators but for her charming face.

In our own language, either from inability to pro-
nounce the canine letter, from habit, imitation, and in
many cases, from pure affectation, w is frequently sub-
stituted for r. Roman is pronounced Woeman ; rub-
bish, wubbish, &c. — a vicious habit which, in spite of
Mr. Punch's weekly castigations, still obtains amongst
our would-be exquisites. In justice to modem dandy-
ism it must be stated that affected rhotacism is not of
recent origin. Lentilius, a famous physician of the
17th century, remarks on this subject that, although
no sane man can subscribe the stupid opinion that
there is anything graceful in stammering, yet he re-
members having known in Saxony some noble young
ladies who, though well able to pronounce the canine
letter, made the greatest effort to acquire a stammering
(dropping the r) enunciation which, in their opinion,
was more graceful, and a sign of gentility. "^

As there is nothing new under the sun, so we find
* Lentilius. K. Med. Pract. Miscell. Ulmae, 1698.

30 STAMMEllING AND STUTTERING.

that old Ovid^'' already complained that some study
to weep with propriety, and can cry at any time
and in any manner they please. They moreover
deprive the letters of their legitunate sounds; they
contract the lisping tongue, and seek for grace in a
vicious articulation of the words. They learn to speak
worse than they actually can.

The following extract in relation to rhotacism may,
perhaps, interest the reader.

The Wonders.]

" There is a village in this county named Charleton,
surnamed Curley, and all that are born herein, have a
harsh and wratling kind of speech, uttering their words
with much difficulty, and wharling in the throat, and
cannot well pronounce the letter r. Surely this pro-
ceedeth not from any natural imperfection in the
parents (whence, probably, the tribual lisping of the

* . . . Discant lacrimare decenter
Quoque volunt plorant tempore, quoque modo
Quid ? cum legitima fraudatur littera voce,
Blaesaque fit jusso subdola lingua sono r
In vitio decor est, quaedam male reddere verba,
Discuut posse minus, quam potuere loqiii.

Ov. Ar. Am. 3. 293.

t T. Fuller's Worthies of Leicestershire. London 1662, ^?. 126.

MINOR defp:cts of akticulation. 31

Ephraimites did arise, Judg. xii. 6.), because their
children, born in other places, are not haunted with that
infirmity. Rather it is to be imputed to some occult
quality in the elements of that place. Thus, a learned
author (J. Bandin Method. Hist. cap. 5) informeth us,
that some families at Lnhloin, in Guyen, in France, do
naturally stut and stammer, which he taketh to proceed
from the nature of the waters.

"As for the inability distinctly to pronounce r, it
is a catching disease in other counties. I knew an
Essex man, (Mr. Jos. Mede), as great a scholar as any
in our age, who could not, for his life, utter Carolus
Rex Britamiice, without stammering. The best was,
the king had from him in his hearty prayers what he
wanted in YCr^ plain pronunciation.

" My father has told me, that in his time, a fellow of
Trinity College., probably a native of Charleton, in this
county, sensible of his own imperfection herein, made
a speech of competent length, with select words both
to his mouth and for his matter without any r therein,
to show that men may speak without being beholden to
the dogs letter."

From what I have been able to ascertain, the present
inhabitants have neither this defect, nor has the " oldest
inhabitant" any knowledge of its ever having prevailed
in the district.

32 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

Slgmatism, from the Greek dgma, comprehends the
various defects in the enunciation of the sibilants or
hissing sounds, s, z, zh, &c. Our own word to lisp is
probably -derived from the sound : Anglo-Saxon wlisp,
German lispeln, French sesseyer. Though the Greeks
used the word pselUsmos for impediments of speech in
general, it seems that joseZ/os specially meant a lisper, and
the word is, according to Hesychius, an onomatopoiea.
The substitution of t, or th for s, or vice versa, is the
most common expression of the vice of lisping, for it is
certainly no beauty of enunciation, whatever may be
the opinion of our young ladies.

If lisping does not proceed from an abnormal condi-
tion of the tongue and the position of the teeth, it is
the result of habit and affectation. This peculiar
utterance of the sibilants, arises mostly from the
inappropriate action of the tongue against the teeth.

Our th seems to be the shiboleth of foreigners, who
do not possess this sound. In their attempts to
enunciate the sound, they pronounce tinker or dsinker
for thinker, &cc.

Rhinism or Rhinophonia (speaking through the nose).
— In the normal state of articulation, the sounds escape
more or less both by the mouth and nostrils. When
either of these passages is closed, or when any one

MINOR DEFECTS OF ARTICULATION. 33

attempts to speak or sing more than usually through
one channel, the sound acquires that disagreeable
quality, the nasal timbre, which thus arises from two
opposite causes. When the dorsum of the tongue is
raised, and the soft palate descends, the air can only
partially flow out by the buccal cavity, in which case
the sounding air- current passes into the nasal cavity,
and escapes by the external nostrils. There results, from
this, what is commonly termed the nasal twang, and
the expression " speaking through the nose," is suffi-
ciently correct. But the very same effect may be
produced by the opposite cause of obstructions existing
in the nasal cavities, either from inflammation of the
mucous membrane, tumours, or by holding the nose, so
as to prevent the sound escaping by the nostrils. In
such cases, it is clear the person does not speak through
the nose, but through the mouth. From imitation and
habit, there are whole nations who rejoice in that pecu-
liar twang ^ which distinguishes the genuine Yankee. It is
by obtaining a great command over the action of the
vocal and articulating organs, that many persons
become adepts in altering the normal action of their
organs, and in imitating the voice and speech of others.
Cluttering. — French. Bredouillement, is an anomalous
enunciation, which consists in pronouncing words and

34 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

sentences with such rapidity, that the syllables appear
only half articulated, and the speaker becomes, conse-
quently, unintelligible.

This vice must be distinguished from mere talkative-
ness, and specially from its morbid aggravation
lallomania — an irresistible impulse to talk — resulting,
no doubt, from some cerebral affection. Cluttering is ,
also, distinct from patterijig, assumed by some of our
actors and entertainers, for the purpose of diverting
their audience. Pattering is ^feat which may be ac-
quired by much practice, cluttering is a vice which,
unless checked at the proper time, may become
habitual. There are no other means of remedying it but
by enjoining the pupils to articulate slowly, and recite
rhythmical exercises, and thus prevent them crowding
and gluing their words together. With regard to
natural pattering, or abnormal rapidity of utterance, it
will generally be found that little persons, of a sanguine
temperament, are much more inclined to it than the
tall and phlegmatic. The reason seems to be that, in
the former, the circulation and respiration is more
rapid, and their ideas, possibly, present themselves
more readily, while in tall and phlegmatic persons, the
pulse being slower, and the respiration proportionally
less frequent, the utterance keeps pace, and is more
sedate

CHAPTER IV.

STATISTICS OF PSELLISM.

CoLOMBAT ( Tableau Synopt. 8f Statistiqtie) assumes
that there are, in France, about 6,000 persons labouring
under defective articulation, or nearly 1 in 5,000.
There can be no doubt that the actual proportion is
much greater. Colombat himself admits that he in-
cluded in his estimation such only whose impediments
were strongly marked. In Prussia, which, in 1830
contained a population of about 13,000,000, the
number ascertained from the official returns of
many places, was calculated to amount to more
than 26,000 cases for the whole kingdom. Accord-
ing to this calculation, taking the population of
the globe to amount to about 1000,000,000, the
number of stutterers and stammerers, would, form
an army of 2,000,000, of which London alone would
possess nearly 6,000. It would be very desirable that
at the Census, or whenever an opportunity may occur,
the Registrar-General would employ the means at his

36 STAMMERING ANE STUTTERING.

disposal to ascertain the actual number of persons
labouring under various impediments of speech in
Great Britain, which, I have little doubt will approach
the proportion of 3 in 1,000.

It is unquestionable that psellism is far less frequent
in females than in men. Jtard declares he never met
with a female stutterer, though he does not deny that
such exist. According to Colombat, one woman only in
20,000 stutters, while the proportion, according to the
same authority, in men is 1 in 5,000.

Reasoning a j^riori^ one would imagine that stuttering
should be more prevalent among females than among
males. If the cause of stuttering depends upon nervous
susceptibility, and if it be nearly allied to chorea,
females should suffer from it in greater numbers.
Again, if, as some gratuitously assume — without a
shadow of reason — that woman thinks more rapidly
than man, the probable effect should be that the words
would not keep pace with the thoughts. Aristotle,
(for Rullier seems to have borrowed the idea from him)
already considered that one of the causes of stuttering
was, that the words did not proceed j-jarZ/Mssw with the
thoughts, on account of the flight of the imagination.
Again, if timidity be one of the causes of stuttering, the
fair sex should, from their natural bashfulness, be more

STATISTICS OF PSELLISM. 37

liable to it. Setting aside the theory of final causes,
viz : that nature, in order to compensate woman for
her weakness, has bestowed upon her a powerful
weapon in the gift of the tongue, we must, then, rest
satisfied with the physiological fact, that the vocal and
and articulating apparatus of woman being more elastic
and mobile than that of man, is less liable to be affected
by some of the minor causes which produce the infir-
mity in the male sex. In illustration of this fact it
may be stated that, the male voice rarely, if ever,
reaches such a compass as that possessed by some
female singers, such as Catalani, or Sessi, &;c.

I have full reason to believe the estimate above, far
too low, at least, for this country. Many cases of
female stutterers have come under my notice, some of
which, of a very severe nature, requiring the greatest
care in treatment. The habitual timidity of women
frequently aggravated by a derangement of the nervous
system, combines to produce more intricate cases than
in men, and require more time and patience to arrive
at a successful issue.

It would equally be an interesting subject of inquiry,
to ascertain, as far as possible, the influence of different
languages and dialects upon the causation of impeded
articulation. At present, our data are insufficient to

38 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

found on tliem any correct theory. It is presumable^
that a soft flowing language may not produce such a
Iter centage of stutterers as a liarsh and guttural one ;
climate and other circumstances may also have a con-
siderable influence.

Colombat mentions that a son of Mr. Chaigneau, the
French Consul, in Cochin-China, born of a Chinese
mother, and who, from his innmcy, spoke the languages
of both his parents, expressed himself with the greatest
facility in the Chinese dialect, but stuttered much in
spealdng French, which he was chiefly in the habit of
using. Colombat attributes this to the rhythmical
structure of the Chinese, and the peculiar intonation
required to distinguish similar words. (See Philosojjht/
of Voice and Sj^eech, page 185.)

It appears to me, that if it be true, as has been
asserted on very slender grounds, that there are no
stutterers in China (for the whole nation stammer, at
least, in our acceptation of the term, inasmuch as they
cannot pronounce the canine letter), the circumstance
is not so much owing to the sing-song, nor to the
rhythmical structure of the Chinese language, but
chiefly to its being a mono -syllabic tongue.

In Great Britain I think there is an excess of the
average amount of stutterers in the north, where our

STATISTICS OF TSELLISM. 39

language meets the Gaelic. Where a mixed language
is spoken, the majority are unable to speak the one or
the other perfectly, and the result is, that they find a
difficulty at both, whence arises a certain hesitation,
the forerunner of stuttering. If this be true, we might,
a priori, expect a large number of stutterers and
stammerers at the frontiers of countries in which the
languages differ ; but I am not aware whether such be
the fact.

Another question has been much discussed, namely,
whether psellism be the privilege of civilization or not.
All travellers, who have long resided among unculti-
vated nations, and whose authority is of any \veight,
maintain that they never met with any savages labour-
ing under an impediment of speech, ••' Granting it to
be so, it is not easy to say whether this immunity is
owing to the more ample physical development of the
buccal cavity in savages, to the nature of their dialect,
or to their freedom from mental anxieties and nervous
debility, the usual concomitants of refinement and civi-
lization. My impression is, that the latter circumstance
offers the best explanation of the alleged fact.

* De Froberville (Bull, de la Soc. Geogr. Juin, 1852), speaks
of a stuttering negro-tribe, the Neambaga ; they intercalate
the syllable, shill, or any other, in the middle of each word.

CHAPTER V.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES OF ARTICULATION.

The doctrine of hereditary transmission both of cor-
poreal and mental qualities from parent to offspring, as
shown in external resemblance and similarity of internal
organization, has, at all times met with much favour.
But while there are some who assert that, excepting
acute fevers, nearly all affections are transmitted by
the parent to the child, there are some eminent
physiologists who totally dissent from this doctrine,
both as a matter of fact and theory. Dr. Louis goes even
so far as to consider variation the rule ; and conformity
the exception. Thus, with regard to temperament, he
observes, that children, born of the same parents, nearly
always exhibit different temperaments ; some are of a
bilious, others of a sanguine, or a phlegmatic tempera-
ment. Twins frequently differ in this respect. Even
the famous Hungarian sisters who lived twenty-two
years, are described as having been most dissimilar in
temperament and dispositions, although they were like

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES OF AUTICULATION. 41

the Siamese twins, joined together, and had a com-
municating system of blood vessels.

In accordance with this doctrine, impediments of
speech have also generally been considered as hereditary
affections, and as the male is believed to influence more
the external resemblance, and the female more the
internal organism, when hereditary on the female
side, it is said to spread upon a greater number of a
family. Certain it is, that many stammerers and
stutterers consider their affection as an inheritance, and
account for it that they have a parent or collateral
relation labouring under the same infirmity. It is
equally true, that many instances can be adduced where
the defect has descended for several generations, and I
have, myself, had under my care several children thus
afflicted out of one family where the parents stuttered.

S. Lucas* who assumes that not merely external re-
semblance, and internal organization, but moral and
intellectual aptitudes are directly transmitted, gives the
following instance of hereditary loquacity. A servant
girl talked so incessantly, either to others or to herself,
that her master found it necessary to dismiss her, when
she exclaimed " But, sir, it is not my fault ; it is no^

* Traite Philosoph. et Physiol, de Vheredite naturelle, Paris*
1847.

42 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

my fault ; it comes to me from my father, who tormented
my mother in the same way, and he had a brother who
was just like me."

Now without at all denying the transmission even of
organic defects — the statistics of deaf-muteism* having
placed this question beyond any doubt, I still contend
that stuttering as such, is 7iot an inheritance, not
being, as deaf-muteism, the result of defective organi-
sation. All that can be safely asserted amounts to
this : that as nervous affections are, more or less trans-
missible, hereditary influence may be at work in
causing a pre-disposition to contract the habit of
stuttering whenever the subject is placed in certain cir-
cumstances favourable for its development

Injluence of Temperature.

That sudden variations of temperature, changes of
the season, extreme heat or cold, have some influence,
(as in most nervous affections,) in either increasing or
diminishing the infirmity, merely confirms the theory,
that stuttering is a functional disorder. Colombat
asserts, that stuttering increases in winter and summer,"

* See Philosophy of Voice and SpeecJi, chap. xix.

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES OF ARTICULATION. 43

and diminishes in autumn and spring, provided they
are temperate and moist, and that dry air in frost and
great heat act inversely.'*'' This is opposed to the
experience and practice of Mercurialis, who would
confine the patient in a dry and heated atmosphere.
The affection is also said to be more sensible in the
morning than in the evening. According to my own
experience, all these assumptions are more fanciful than
real. No certain rules can be laid down in this respect.
The dry or damp state of the atmosphere, its electrical
condition, and the changes of the season, influence
stuttering according to the idiosyncrasy of the subject,
so that the same external influences produce among a
number of stutterers collected under one roof, opposite
effects.

Tempet'ument. — That the majority of stutterers belong
to what are termed the sanguine and nervous tempera-
ment is true enough : but it is an error to suppose that
they are exclusively of this class. All temperaments
yield their quota, and some of the more severe cases
which. I had under my care were subjects of a lymphatic,

* *' Aetna was very furious when we passed, as she useth
to be sometimes more than others, specially when the wind
is southward, for then she is more subject to belching out
Hakes of fii'e, as stutterers use to stammer tnore when the wind
is in that hole. {Howel's letters, 1655.)

44 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

temperament, who, though less tractable than those of
any other temperament, rarely relapsed after being once
cured.

Psychical Injluences.

Every passing emotion influences more or less the
action of the heart and the respiratory functions,
either in accelerating or retarding them, and as the
production of voice is intimately connected with the
act of respiration, it is not surprising that the vocal
and articulating apparatus is instantly affected by the
state of our feelings and thoughts. If, on the one
hand, slight emotions increase the infirmity of stutter-
ing, violent emotions, wrath, fear, danger, or severe
injury, may remove it by the excitation of cerebral
action ; the motor agents of the articulation receive
a new impulse and vigour, and the person who could
scarcely produce a word, expresses himself with
remarkable energy. On the other hand, voice and
speech may be suddenly lost under the influence of
powerful emotions. The following cases, presenting
opposite effects, may serve as illustrations : —

In January, 1833, three gentlemen, MM. Dub...
Mart... and Ou..., stutterers to a painful degree, went

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES OF AETICULATION. 45

to the French Academy of Sciences, for the purpose
of being examined before a Commission prior to the
commencement of their treatment under Mr. Colombat,
then a candidate for the prize Monthyon. On leaving
the Academy, they entered a tobacconist shop to
purchase some cigars. Mr. Dub. ..who was the least
timid, commenced his address, " Dooo do doo donncz
mois des ci des ci des cigarres." It so happened that
the tobacconist was himself a terrible stutterer ; he
was thus by no means surprised to have found a com-
rade in affliction, but he was certainly far from imagin-
ing that the other two were similarly affected. When,
therefore, the tobacconist asked " de-dede-de-dede-
quel quel qua-qua-qu qua qualite vou-vou-voulez vous
les-les cigarres," and all three began horribly to stutter;
he flew into a violent rage, thinking that they merely
came to have a lark. He, therefore, seized a stick to
belabour them, whilst he swore at, and threatened them
in the most energetic terms, without the least impedi-
ment in his speech. Fortunately the arrival of Mr.
Colombat put an end to the scene, by informing the
enraged tobacconist of the real facts of the case.

The Courrier de Lyon (Feb., I860,) relates the fol-
lowing sad result of a practical joke :— *' An apprentice

46 STAMMERING AND STUTTEUING.

of that city, who had been out catching- frogs last
week, brought several home alive, and to play his
brother a trick, put three of them in his bed. In
the middle of the night the frogs, finding the bed too
warm, tried to get out, and one of them happened to
crawl on the lad's face and awoke him. Feeling some-
thing cold and clammy on his cheek, the lad was dread-
fully frightened, and leaped out of bed, calling for
help. When his parents came they found him lying
on the floor in strong convulsions, which were, however,
relieved by proper treatment, and the boy has since
resumed his usual occupation, but has lost the faculty
of speech."

My note-book is filled with such instances. One of
the most severe cases of stuttering I ever saw, was
caused by the parent stamping and calling out in a
loud voice, " silence." His son, aged eight, who was
running across the room, fell on hearing his father's
voice. When he got up, he began stuttering very
violently.

A pupil, who has recently left me quite cured, stated
that his infirmity was caused by the fright of being
run after by an Irish tramp.

Esquirol, in his Ireatise on the great influence of
violent impressions on the organs of speech, relates

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES OF ARTICULATION. 47

that a person who by accident had lost his power of
speech, suffered for years patiently the scoldings of his
wife. One day, being more than usually ill-treated,
he became so much enraged, that his tongue, hitherto
paralysed, recovered suddenly its mobility, so that
henceforth he repaid his Xanthippe with compound
interest.

There appeared lately, in the Cologne Gazette, an
extract from the Magdeburg Journal, to the following
effect : — A shoemaker in Domschutz, near Torgau,
named Griihl, had^ a son nineteen years of age, who
had lost his voice when he was ten years old. In the
night before last Christinas the young man had a vision,
which commanded him to join in the responses on
Christmas day. From fear the young man had hid
himself under his bed covering, and fell into a profuse
perspiration. The next day he was completely cured.

A woman in the south of France, who had lost her
speech from sleeping with her head uncovered in the
sun, recovered it suddenly two years, afterwards when
her house was on fire.

Herodotus gives the following account of the son
of Croesus : —

" Croesus had a son, who was a fine j^outh, but
dumb. Everything had been done for him by his

48 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

father. He also sent to Delphi to consult the oracle,
and Pythia answered as follows : — ' Lydian, though
thou art a powerful prince, yet of a foolish heart.
Expect not to hear in thy palace the desired voice of
thy son, that will be of no use. Know he will first
speak on the most unfortunate day.'

* When now the city (Sardis) was conquered, one
of the Persians approached Croesus to slay him, for he
knew him not. And when Croesus perceived it, he
was careless about being struck down, having been so
unfortunate. But when his young son saw the inten-
tion of the Persian to kill his father, fear and anxiety
released his voice, and he spoke : ' Man, kill not
Croesus ! ' This was the first word which he spoke
and he continued to speak all his life."

Dr. Todd terms such a loss of speech, met with
in patients subjected to some powerful emotion,
" emotional paralysis." It occurs, he says, in men of
hypochondriacal habits, and in women too. The power
of speech returning usually in a few days, and rapidly,
after the patient has gained the ability of pronouncing
" Yes " or " No."

Influence of Imitation. — The tendency to imitate the
actions of others is so intimately connected with the
nature of man, that Aristotle has, by way of distinc-

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON ARTICULATION. 49

tion, called him an imitating animal. I do not speak
here of voluntary and deliberate imitation, but of that
almost irresistible propensity to catch and to repeat
the expressions and actions of other human beings
with whom we come in contact. This tendency ex-
hibits itself in its greatest intensity in childhood and
early youth. Long before children can appreciate our
motives, they imitate our actions. The faculty is
instinctive, both in man and many animals, and differs
from the power cf voluntary imitation, possessed by
man in the highest degree, that it is a deliberate act,
determined by various motives.

The most familiar illustration of involuntary imita-
tion is the irresistible inclination to imitate the act of
yawning, which is so little under the influence of the
will, that the more we resist the execution cf the
movement, the greater is the desire to effect it. The
history of epidemics, religious revivals, kc, and the
medical records, afford the most conclusive proofs of
the infectious nature of emotions, and" their physical
manifestations, convulsions, fits, &c.

The imitative propensity exhibits itself in earliest
childhood, and nothing is more common than to see
infants assume the gestures and habits of those by

D

50 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

whom they are constantly surrounded. This suscepti-
bility may, it is true, differ in various subjects in degree,
but not in kind. There are, in fact, but few irregular
actions, manifested externally, which are not instinc-
tively imitated by children. It is, therefore, beyond
question that, like squinting, winking with the eyes,
and many other habits, both stammering and stuttering
arise, in most cases, from unconscious, or may be,
voluntary imitation. Seeing, then, that the habit is
80 easily contracted, we are scarcely justified in con-
sidering it as an hereditary affection, even in such cases
where one of the parents stammers. In by far the
greater number of cases which came under my obser-
vation, I found that the evil was neither hereditary nor
congenital, but could be traced to the prodigious in-
fluence of voluntary or involuntary imitation, One
stammerer or stutterer in a family is quite sufficient to
inoculate the rest ; and so rapid is the contagion to a
susceptible child, that I have had pupils who have con-
tracted the habit by a single interview with a stutterer.
I must here strongly warn all young persons against
stammering either in mimicry, or for the baser purpose
of deceiving their teachers, in order to avoid some task,
as I have hud pupils who have confessed their serious

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON ARTICULATION. 51

impediment to be the result of one of these practices.*
I am in a condition to adduce numerous instances of
this kind from my own experience, but I shall only
add two illustrations, so graphically described by an
eminent authority on this as on other subjects. " I knew
of a young man, who used for his little brothers and
sisters* amusement, to act some stammering relation.
One day he found that his acting had become grim
earnest. He had set up a bad habit, and he was en-
slaved by it. He was utterly terrified ; he looked on
his sudden stammers (by a not absurd moral sequence)
as a judgment from God for mocking an afflicted per-
son ; and suffered great misery of mind, till he was
cured by a friend of mine, to whom I shall have occa-
sion to refer hereafter."!

* A much, respected clergyman, of the Church of Scotland,
who lately consulted me, writes to the following effect : " I
was entirely free of it till I was five years of age, when at that
time of life there was a gentleman who was m the habit of
occasionally fre(|uenting my father's house, who indeed stam-
mered very badly, and I distinctly remember one afternoon
trying to imitate him, when unfortunately he heard me, and
was very indignant, and so ashamed were my parents at my
conduct, that after he had gone, I was taken to task and
punished severely for it, and ever since that night I have 'been,
affiicted with this most distressing malady ."

t The Irrationah of Speech. By a Minute Philosopher.—
Fraser's Magazine, July, 1859,

52 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

" One of the most frightful stammers I ever knew
began at seven years old, and could only be traced to
the child's having watched the contortions of a stam-
mering lawyer in a Court of Justice. But the child
had a brain at once excited and weakened by a brain
fever, and was of a painfully nervous temperament."

Remarks on Certain Received Opinions in Relation to
Stammerijig and Stuttering.

1. — Persom do not stutter in singing, — It is undeniable
that stuttering obtains much less in singing. The simple
reason is, that in singing the breath is more regulated,
the glottis is open, and the action of the vocal appa-
ratus is not so much interrupted as in common speech,
which requires a constant change in the position of the
articulative organs. For a similar reason, though in a
less degree, stuttering is not so appreciable in recita-
tive as in declamation. Something analogous takes
place in intoxication ; an inebriated man is sometimes
able to run, but finds it a rather diiScult matter to stand
at ease or walk steadily. The same singular phenomena
occur now and then in rheumatic and nervous affec-
tions. Gaubins cites the case of a man who could run,
but not walk steadily ; and Astrie had a lady under his
care who walked lame, but danced dogantly.

KXTERNAL INFLUENCES ON ARTICULATION. 53

It is, however, not true that the above rule applies
generally. I have had under my care subjects who
also stutter in singing, which certainly renders the
case more complicated.

2. — There is no Stuttering in Whispering. — The reason
why generally there is no stuttering in whispering is,
that in that mode of utterance there is no necessity of a
synchronous action between the muscles of the larynx
and the oral canal, the breath being articulated without
the participation of the vocal ligaments ; but if the fault
lies, as in a few cases it does, in the action of the articu-
lating organs, there will be, and there is, stuttering in
whispering, as I have frequently had occasion to con-
vince myself.

3. — When alone persons do not stutter nearly as much
as when in Co?npang. ^Timidity, and the fear of stutter-
ing, no doubt, in many instances increases the infirmity ;
hence, generally speaking, patients are more free in
their elocution when reading by themselves ; but such
is not invariably the case. A young lady, at present
(July, 1860) one of my pupils, is far more affected with
the infirmity when alone than before company. The
fear of rendering herself ridiculous acts, in her case, as a
stimulant, strengthening the psychical element — the
firm will to overcome the difficulty, and actually giving

54 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

her, for the time, more control over the disobedient
organs.

4. — Stutterers cannot stutter voluntarily when told to
do so. — I considered this alleged fact, mentioned by Dr.
Warren, too curious to neglect verifying it. I am
bound to say that in all cases I have yet tried there was
not one in which the infirmity disappeared. The volun-
tary effort made by the patient simply effected, in most
instances, an articulation different from his normal
utterance, but no removal of the defect, which indeed
generally only exists when the persons are trying to speak
in their natural voice. Nearly all stutterers have no
difficulty when they imitate any peculiar articulation ;
but this voluntary effort cannot be kept up, and it fre-
quently happens that nervous stutterers are too timid to
try such an expedient.

CHAPTER VI.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE CHIEf
THEORIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT,

Arranged in Chronological Order,

The literature of defective articulation may conve-
niently be divided into two periods, viz. : — From the
earliest records to Mercurialis (1584), and from Mer-
curialis to the present time.

First Period,

The earliest mention of defective utterance we find
in the Scriptures.

*' I am slow of speech and of a slow tongue." He-
brew.— Kebad peh kehad loshun anochi, Greek,
Sept. — Ischnophonos kai bradyglossos ego eimi. Latin,
VuLG. — Impeditioris et tardioris linguae sum. ExOD.
Chap. iv. 10.

" And the tongue of stammerers shall speak readily
and plain." Hebrew. — Loshun elgim. Greek Sept.

56 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

Kai ai glossai ai psellizousai. Latin/ Vulg. — Ei
lingua balhorum.'* Isaiah, Chap, xxxii. 4.

*' And the string of his tongue was loosed, and he
spake plain." St. Mark, Chap vii. o5.

Among the Pagan writers who allude to defects of
the articulation may be mentioned Herodotus, Aris-
totle, Hippocrates, Plutarch, Galen, Celsus, &c.

The information we derive from the writings of the
Greeks and Romans in relation to the physiology and
pathology of dyslalia is very scanty, which is the more
remarkable, as oratory then paved the way to the
highest offices of the state.

The following extracts from the works of the ancients,
arranged nearly in chronological order, contain some
of the principal passages referring to the subject of
disorders of the voice and speech. I have considered
it advisable to place the Greek and L?itin terms in
juxtaposition, in order better to exhibit the meaning
which the respective authors and translators, apparently
attached to the expressions used. I may also here
observe that in presenting the reader with a panoramic
view of the principal theories and remedies proposed, I
first intended to offer my comments on them separately
in a collected form. On further consideration, it seemed

THEORIES A2«:D MODES OF TREATMENT. 57

to me preferable to append my remarks to the respec-
tive views of the various authors quoted.

The term battarismos is, according to some, derived
from Battos. Herodotus (484 e.g.) says that the The-
rean Battos, w^ho had been a stutterer and a stammerer
{ischnophonos kai traulos) from his youth, consulted the
oracle at Delphi. The oracle said :

" Battos, thou comest on account of thy speech, but
King Phcebus Apollo sends thee to Libya, in the land
of sheep to dwell."

After having founded the colony Cyrene, he was,
according to Pausauias (l. 10) cured by the unexpected
sight of a lion. Herodotus also observes that Battos
meant, in the African language, a king.

Aristotle (384 e.g.) says, "The tongue is either
broad or narrow, or of a medium shape, which latter is
the best for distinctness ; or it is free or tied, as in those
that stammer and stutter. Gr. — Tois psellois kai iois
traulois. Lat. — Qualis hlaesoi^um et bulborum. Hint. An.
Lib. 1, Cap. ii.

" An equable and broad tongue is also convenient for
the formation of letters, and the purpose of speech ; for,
being such and free, it is eminently capable of being
dilated and contracted in a variety of manners. This
is evident in all such persons in which the tongue is

68 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

not sufficiently free, for they stammer and stutter.
Gr. Psellinzontai gar kai traulizousi. Lat. hlaesi
enim et halhi sunt*

Problems, — Section XI. — 'Stammering (Gr. traulotes
Lat. Blaesitas) therefore, is the inability of articulating
a certain letter ; quam libet ; but stuttering {psellotes)
is the omission of some letter or syllable ; and hesita-
tion (Jschnophonia) is the inability of joining one syl-
lable with another. All this arises from debility, for
the tongue is not obedient to the will. Intoxicated
persons, and old men, are similarly affected, but in a
lesser degree. (Problem 30)."

Problem 38. — "Why are those who hesitate in speak-
ing melancholy? (ischnophonoi, ILdX. quilinguahaesitani).
Is it because thatto follow the imagination rapidly is to
be melancholy? Such, however, is the case with those
that hesitate in speech, for in them the impulse to
speak precedes the power, in consequence of the mind
rapidly following that which is presented to it. This is
also the case with those that stammer, for in these the
tongue is too slow to keep pace with the imagination.'*

Hippocrates (370 e.g.! Praecepta 6 ; Aphor. 6, 32 ;
Epid. 2,5; De Judicat 6.

" Persons who have impediments in their speech
* De Part. An. Lib. 2, Cap. xvii.

THEOBIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 59

(Gr. — ischnophoninen. Lat. — ex linguae haesitantes)
are freed by varices ; the impediment remains if no
varices appear.

"Those who are tall, bald, stammer {trauloi) and
hesitate in their speech {ischnophonoi),^ are usually
good. A stammerer, [traulos) bald, and hesitating in
his speech, {ischfiopkonos) who has a hairy body, is
subject to atrabilious diseases, as also those who repeat
certain syllables, striking various times with their
tongue, are not masters of their lips. Some suppuration
must be effected if they are to acquire freedom of
speech."

Chap. vi. — " Those who have a large head, small eyes,
are, if they stammer, subject to auger."

" Stammerers (oitroiloi), and clutterers {tachyylossoi ;
linguae voluhilitate), are much subject to bile.

" Who has a small head will neither be bald nor
stammer, unless he has blue eyes."

Hippocrates also observes that the infirmity is partly
owing to an affection of the ears, and partly that the
speaker before delivering his words passes to other
thoughts and expressions.]

Epid. Sect. 3. further. — In gouty persons, tumours

* Some translate linguae haesitantei, others gracili voce, (a
thin falsetto voice)

60 STAMMERING jLXD STUTTERING.

are observed under the tongue containing calculi, inters
fering with articulation."

As the prince of orators is constantly alluded to in
relation to impediments of speech^ it may not be out of
place to give here the entire passage of Plutarch (a.d.
66), as referring to his infirmity.

" Demosthenes, in his first address to the people,
was laughed at and interrupted by their clamour; for the
violence of his manner threw him into a confusion of
periods and a distortion of his arguments. He had,
besides, a weakness and a stammering in his voice,*
which caused such a distraction in his discourse that it
was difficult for the audience to understand him. At
last, on his quitting the assembly, Eunomos the Tria-
sian, a man now extremely old, found him wandering
in a dejected condition in the Piraeus, and took on to
him to set him right. " You," said he, " have a man-
ner of speaking much like Pericles, and yet you lose
yourself out of mere timidity and cowardice. You
neither bear up against the tumult of a popular audi-
ence, nor prepare your body by exercise for the labour
of the rostrum."

*Gr.— Kai phor.es astheneia, kai glottes asapheia, pneumatos
kolobotes. Lat. — Laboravit veto etiam vocis exilitate, lingua
inexplanata, spiritus augustia. Plut. Vit. parall.

THEORIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 61

Another time, we are told, when his speeches had
been ill-received, he went home with his head covered,
and in the greatest distress. Satyrus, the actor, who
was an acquaintance, followed him. Demosthenes la-
mented that though he was the most painstaking of all
the orators, yet could he find no fixvour with the people.
" You speak truly," replied Satyrus, " but I will soon
provide a remedy, if you will recite to me some speech
in Euripides or Sophocles. When Demosthenes had
finished, Satyrus repeated the same speech, with such
propriety of action, and so much in character, that it
seemed quite a dificrent passage. Demosthenes now
understood, how much grace and dignity of action adds
to the best oration, that he thought it of small matter
to compose and premeditate, if the pronunciation and
propriety of gesture were not attended to. On this
he built himself a subterraneous study, which re-
mained in our times. Thither he repaired every day
to form his action and exercise his voice; and he
would stay there for two or three months together,
shaving one side of his head, that the shame of appear-
ing in that condition should keep him in. Demetrius,
the Phaleiian gives an accoimt of the remedies he
applied to his personal defects, and he says he had it
from Demosthenes in his old age. The hesitation and

62 »rAMMER[Na AKD STUTTERING.

stammering he corrected by practising to speak with
pebbles in his mouth, and he strengthened his voice
by running or walking up hill, and pronouncing some
passage in an oration or poem during the difficulty of
breath which that caused. He had, moreover, a look-
ing-glass in his room, before which he declaimed to
adjust his motions.

Celsus* says, " When the tongue is paralysed, either
from a vice of the organ, or the consequence of another
disease, and when the patient cannot articulate, gargles
should be administered, of a decoction of thyme,
hysop, or pennyroyal ; he should drink water, and the
head, the neck, mouth, and the parts below the chin
be well rubbed. The tongue should be rubbed with
lazerwort, and he should chew pungent substances,
such as mustard, garlick, onions, and make every effort
to articulate. He must exercise himself to retain his
breath, wash the head with cold water, eat horse-
radish, and then vomit."

Galenits (died about 200 a.d. — De locis affectis^ 6),
appears to refer stammering to an intemperies humida.
Intoxicated persons stammer, as the brain is too much
moistened, and consequently the instruments which
move the tongue, and the tongue itself. And again,

* Cchus dc ResohUione Linguae.

THEORIES AND MODES OF TREATMENT. 63

that ischnophonia^ or stuttering, is owing to the debility
of the muscles of the tongue from the diminution of
heat.

It would thus appear that translators and commen-
tators have been much perplexed as to the proper
meaning of ischnophonia, psellismos, battarismos,
traulismos, &c. According to the etymology of the
term ischnophonia, {ischnos, weak, thin, and phone
voice,) is merely a defect of the voice and not of
articulation. Yet Aristotle expressly says that isch-
nophonia consists in the disability of properly joining
syllables and words, i. e. , stuttering. Again, Alci-
biades is by Plutarch called traulotes, translated a
lisper, but there is no evidence that he actually
lisped; he had a defect in the enunciation of r.
The word halbus of the Romans seems chiefly to
have been applied to this defect, hence the surnames
BalbuSy Balbinus, Balbilius, Sec, as some of the
members of the family Sempronius, were named.
Traulismos seems, therefore, to mean what is now-
understood by rhotacism. Psellismos appears to have
conveyed the meaning of lisping. "Psellos," says Hesy-
chius, {factum a sono — an onomatopoeia,) '* is a person
who cannot properly pronounce s — a lisper." The
Koinans frequently called a lisper blacsus ; blacsilas

64 STAilMEKING AND STUTTERING.

would, therefore, properly mean lisping. Then, again,
there are atijpi, derived either from typoo, I express,
and the priv- a ; or from fypto, I strike ; such persons
cannot use the instrument of the tongue with sufficient
expedition ; and ancyglossi — tongue-tied, are those
whose tongue is attached naturally by the fraenum, or
accidentally from indurated cicatrices, the result of
ulcers.

CHAPTER VII.

HISTORICAL EEVIEW, WG.-iSecond Period.)
Fro7n Mercurialis to the 2)rese7it time.

The literature of Psellisin may, strictly speaking, be
said to date from the time of Mercurialis, who treats
of defective utterance at considerable length in the
second book of his work, De puerorum morbis. Ed.
J. Groscesii, Francofurti, 1584.* According to the
notions prevalent at his time, Mercurialis considers a
moist and cold intemperament as the chief cause of
balbuties, comprehending both stammering and stutter-
ing. He, therefore, forbids washing the head of stam-
mering children, as that increases the moisture, In
order to desiccate the head, he advises cauteries and
blisters on tl^e neck and behind the ears, which should
be kept open for a considerable time. To dry the

* Hieronynus Mercurialis, born at Forli, 1530, and subse-
quently professor at Padua, Bologna, and Pisa, was tlie
greatest physician of his time, and equally distinguished as a
philosopher and antiquary. Emperor Maximilian II, whom
he cured of a fever, created him a count, and the Paduaus
erected a monument to his memory,

E

66 STAMMEEING AND STUTTERIIN" G.

tongue, be recommends that it should be frequently
rubbed with salt, honey, and specially with sage, which
had proved singularly effective in curing the infirmity.
The diet should be salty, spicy, and heating ; no fish, no
pastry, is to be allowed. Our author is, however, some-
what puzzled by finding that Hippocrates attributes
stammering also to the dryness of the tongue. To recon-
cile this opinion with his own, Mercurialis is obliged to
assume two species of balbuties — a natural and an acci-
dental. The natural is produced by humidity, the un-
natural or accidental by dryness, and it is of this species
that Hippocrates has spoken. Now when balbuties pro-
ceeds from dryness, as after fevers or inflammation of the
brain, we should direct our attention to the moistening
of the tongue and the top of the spinal cord. Gargles
with woman's milk are advisable ; the tongue must be
frequently moistened with a decoction of marsh-mallow,
to which sweet oil of almonds may be added, or some
nymphese leaves, by which the effect will be greater.
The spinal cord, especially the cervical region, should
be acted on by convenient liniments, apt to soften these
parts. Besides, the intemperies humida et frigida^ im-
pediments in speech are also produced by emotions,
deep cogitations, prolonged watchfulness, sexual ex-
cesses, habitual intoxication, which by injuring the
brain and the nerves, produce halhuiies^.

SECOND PERIOD. 67

But, though a physician, Mercurialis does not seem
to rely on his drugs and diet, for he expressly says :
the body and the voice must be exercised as much as
possible, and if there be anything which may benefit
stammerers and stutterers, it is continued loud and
distinct speaking. He supports this opinion by the
example of Demosthenes.*

'J he following extract derives its chief interest from
the celebrity of the author, of whom it can be truly
said, nil erat quod non tetigit'. —

'* Experiment, solitary, touching Stutting, {Sylva
Sylvarum, or Natural History. First published 1627,)
Cent. iv. Sec. 386. By Lord Bacon.

" Divers, we see do stut. The cause may be, in
most the refrigeration of the tongue ; whereby it is less
apt to move. And, therefore, we see that naturals do
generally stut : and we see that in those that stut, if
they drink wine moderately, they stut less, because it
heateth ; and so we see, that they stut more in the first

* Exercendum est corpus quantum fieri potest, praesertun
vero exercenda est vox ; et si quid est, quod possit prodesse
balbis et haesitantibus est continua locutio alta et clara.
Demosthenes superavit balbutiem sola vocis exercitatione et
eontentione, nam dedid decern millia drachmorum Neoptol^mo
Histrioni, qui ilium docuit versus plures uno spiritu proferre
scilicit ut injectis in os calcuiis ascendens et currens versus
continue profeiret.

68 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

offer to speak than in continuance ; because the tongue
is by motion somewhat heated. In some, also, it may-
be, though rarely, the dryness of the tongue, which
likewise maketh it less apt to move as well as cold ;
for it is an affect that cometh to some wise and great
men ; as it did unto Moses, who was linguae praepe-
ditae, and many stutters, w^e find, are very choleric men ;
choler inducing dryness in the tongue."

Johann Conrad Amman 5 of Haarlem, to whose works*'
most subsequent writers are much indebted with re-
gard to a correct theory of the formation of voice and
articulate sounds, did not confine his practice solely to
the education of deaf-mutes, but extended it to remedy
all kinds of defective utterance. Vicious articulation,
he conceived, was in some cases owing to organic
defect in some portion of the vocal and articulating
apparatus, or to debility. The tongue, for instance, is
sometimes so large that it fills nearly the whole buccal
cavity, and materially interferes with the enunciation
of many sounds. " I had," he says, " a Danish gentle-
man under my care, who, on account of the size of his
tongue, articulated badly, and could by no effort of his
own pronounce ^a, but always said ta. Whilst placing

* Surdus loqiiens, ^'c. Anist, 1692. Dissertatio de loquela,
^•c. Amst. 1700.

SECOND PERIOD. 69

my two fingers firmly on this organ, I desired him to
enunciate ka. I well perceived that he tried to say /a,
but as he could not approach the tongue to the teeth
he was forced to enunciate ka to the admiration of the
bystanders." The tongue may also be deficient in
mobility, owing to its being fixed by the fraenum, or
the latter may be absent, in which case, the tongue
lies at the bottom of the cavity. The uvula may be
too voluminous, too small, or altogether wanting. The
palate, the lips, the teeth, may also be in fault.

Amman distinguishes two species of stammering
The first he calls Hottentotism, which consists in modi-
fying the sounds in such a manner that they become
unintelligible. He quotes the case of a young lady of
Haarlem, who could scarcely pronounce any letter but
t, and whose utterance was of course a ridiculous far-
rago of an interminable repetition of that sound.
Amman cured this young lady within a space of three
months, so that not a vestige of her defect remained,
and her elocution became perfect. The second kind,
Amman terms Haesitantia, consisting in a laborious
repetition of tbe explosive sounds. During the eflTorts
to produce them, the patient is frequently much agita
ted, the countenance becomes livid, and the features
contorted. To remedy this defect, he advises loud

70 8TAMMEHING AND STUTTEKING.

reading, committing to memory short pieces, and to
repeat them before a friend slowly and deliberately.
He further recommends exercismj^ the articulatini;
organs in the enunciation of the explosive sounds in
various combinations, as in the syllables — tak^ teh^ tilt ;
pack, peic, pile, pit, hiyi, tuyt, &c. These kinds of
defective utterance, he further observes, are not the
result of organic defects, but originate in the contrac-
tion of a vicious habit, which in time becomes in-
veterate.

Want of space precludes the possibility of quoting
from the works of any other author of this time. An
enumeration of the principal treatises on the subject of
defective utterance must therefore suffice.

G. Schacher. de Loquela. Lipsiae, 1696 ; Kiistner de
lingua sana et aegra. Altdorf, 1716; Fick de halhis.
Jenae, 1725; Bergen de balbutientibus Francf, 1756;
Reil de Vocis et Loquelae vitiis, 8fc.

Sauvags [Nosologia llethodica, Amst. 1768,) places
stammering among dgscinesiae, {dys, difficult, — kineOy
I move,) diseases of which the chief symptom consists
in debility. CuUen, {synop. nos. med.) and many sub-
sequent authors have adopted the same opinion.

Joseph, Frank* distinguishes c^yspAowme- affections

* Prazeos Medicae TJniversae Praecepta. Chap. ii. '* De
vitiis vocis et loquelae."

SECOND TERIOD. 71

of the voice, which may be symptomatic or primary,
traumatic, catarrhal, &c., and dT/slaUae-defeGts of the
articulation. As regards the causes of stuttering, he
enumerates, (following Mercurialis,) bad education,
depraved habit, cerebral affections, sexual excesses, &c
In respect to the prognosis, he observes, that stuttering
seems to diminish, and frequently ceases with advanc-
ing age, but when inveterate it is an incurable evil.
Dr. Frank seems in favour of a severe discipline in the
treatment of stuttering, for he strongly recommends
a good flogging, — a mode of cure with which, for
reasons stated in the sequel, I certainly cannot agree.

The 'nodern literature of Psellism may be said to
have commenced with Itard,* who seems in many res-
pects to have entertained correct notions on the sub-
ject, and to have anticipated some of the appliances
adopted by subsequent practitioners, as will appear
from the following passages . —

Itakd, says : — " Some modern anatomical writers
instead of throwing a new light upon the subject, have
rather withdrawn our attention from the real seat of
the affection, as they considered stuttering as the con-
sequence of organic defects. The phenomena which

* Journal Universel des Sciences Medicals. Paris, 1817.

72 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

stuttering exhibits, make us suspect a spasmodic or
tremulous action, and a debility of the muscles moving
the tongue and the larynx. I have no doubt the
affection is curable. The remedies must necessarily be
adapted to the degree and duration of the disorder.
It is not sufficient to make the pupil acquainted with
the mechanism of articulation, and to repeat frequently
the individual sounds, but they must be studied in all
possible combinations. Some syllables are more easily
pronounced, when preceded by one which places the
tongue into a position favourable for its production ;
whilst the enunciation of them will be more difficult if
they follow a syllable not affording this advantage. A
good deal also depends on the vowel with which the
consonant is combined, thus stutterers find less diffi-
culty in articulating co than ca.

" When stuttering increases and extends to a great
number of individual sounds and syllables, it will be
necessary by mechanical means to strengthen the organs
of articulation, and to lessen their spasmodic tendency.
"We must treat the muscles of the vocal and articula-
ting organs like those of locomotion, and as dancing
and fencing will render the latter more firm and flexi-
ble, so must the tongue and the lips be subjected to
analogous exercises. I avail myself for this purpose

SECOND PERIOD. 76

of a small apparatus, whicli I place under the tongue/^
The iastrument is scarcely introduced, when we hear
a confused, indistinct voice, but no stuttering. The
most difficult syllables are articulated with some trou-
ble, but they are not repeated. We must, however,
not deprive the tongue of this mechanical support at
too early a period, otherwise the defect will re-appear.
The apparatus should be used for a very considerable
time, and when, at meals and during the night, it is
removed, the patient must strictly abstain from speaking.
I cannot exactly say how long it should be worn, hav-
ing only effected two cures by its agency. The first
case was that of a young man, set., twenty, who used
the instrument for about eighteen months. The per-
severance of the patient to subject himself to such an
inconvenience for so long a period, was powerfully
supported by the hope of meeting, after the removal
of his infirmity, with a more favourable reception from
a young lady to whom he was greatly attached. The
cure was complete; but I have n.ot been informed
whether he met in another quarter with the success he
so amply merited. The second case was that of a boy

* The mstrument consists of a gold or ivory fork placed in
the concave centre of a short stalk, and applied by its convex
surface to the cavity of the alveolar arch of the lower jaw.

74 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

set., eleven, who wore the apparatus very reluctantly,
and removed it whenever he could do so unobserved.
I saw him much improved after he had used it for
eight months, and I have reason to believe, though I
lost sight of him, that he ultimately recovered."

Remarks.

Itard very justly denies stuttering as being the con-
sequence of organic lesions. The main defect of his
theory and practice consists in having placed the cause
of the evil too exclusively in the articulating organs.
It is, therefore, not surprising that even by his own
account, he only succeeded by means of his instrument
in effecting two cures after a lapse of eighteen months
in the first, and of eight months in the second case ;
and did not even know whether the latter had been
permanent.

Deleau* distinguishes three kinds of stuttering : the
first is produced by disordered motions of the tongue,
which he calls Ungual or loquax ; the second includes
those stutterers who exhibit contortions in the muscles
of the mouth and the face, which he terms labial or
difforme ; the third, comprising those stutterers who

* Acad, des Sciences, 1828.

SECOND PERIOD. 75

cannot properly produce any sound ; this is termed
douloureux or muet.

As causes he assumes— 1. A vicious enunciation
contracted in infancy. 2. Produced by an organic
lesion. 3. A weak will and an insufficient supply of
nervous influence to direct the organs. In some re-
spects his theory is just the reverse of that of Rullier.

M. Serres"^ considers stuttering a nervous affection,
presenting two well marked aspects. The first resem-
bles chorea of the muscles which modify the sounds ;
in the second there obtains a tetanic rigidity of the
muscles of phonation and respiration. In the first, the
will loses the power of influencing the rapid motions
of tlie lips and tongue ; in the second the respiration
is obstructed. To cure a slight stutter, it is sufficient
to pronounce briskly every syllable ; for courage you
must pronounce rapidly cot«-ra-ge. When the stutter-
ing is severe, this simple kind of gymnastics is in
sufficient ; the arms must join in the movements. You
must shake the stutterer by the arms at every syllable,
or he may do it himself, and he will be surprised at the
facility which these motions will give him.

* Memorial des Ilopitaux du Midi, annei, 1829.

76 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

Remark.

Unfortunately, from the author's experience, the
remedy proposed has frequently the opposite effect. It
succeeds at first, but when the noYelty is gone, the
stuttering is generally worse.

Dr. Rulliee,"" ranges himself among those authors
who place the immediate cause of stuttering in the
brain. He remarks that the cerebral irradiation which
follows thought, and puts the vocal and articulating
organs in action gushes forth so impetuously and
rapidly, that it outruns the degree of mobility possessed
by the muscles concerned, which are thus, as it were,
left behind.

Hence the latter are thrown into that convulsive
and spasmodic state which characterises stuttering.

To substantiate this defective relation between the
exuberance of thought, the celerity of cerebral irradia-
tion and the corresponding organic motions, he observes,
that the great majority of stutterers are distinguished by
the vivacity of their understanding and the petulance
of their character ; but when advancing age clips the
wings of the imagination, and ripens their judgment,
stuttering diminishes as the action of their organs is
now in equilibrium with cerebral irradiation.

* Diet, de Scien. Med. Brux. 1828.

SECOND PERIOD. 77

As an auxiliary in curing stuttering, RuUier recom-
mends the burning of moxa on the integuments cover-
ing the larynx and the hyoid bone.

Remarks.

Rullier's theory connecting stuttering with an ex-
uberant imagination is certainly not new, having, as the
reader may find already been advanced by Aristotle.
The connexion between thought and speech is no doubt
an interesting subject of inquiry. In plain, distinct
speech, good speakers do not utter more than three
syllables in a second, but in rapid delivery, as many as
eight or nine syllables may be utttered within that
time. Yet it seems certain that a long train of thought
may run through the mind during the time it takes to
articulate a single word. The anxious endeavours to
express these thoughts may certainly interfere with
articulation in two ways. If there be no command of
words, it will produce hesitation, just as its opposite a
want of matter ; but I doubt much whether it can ever
be the cause of actual stuttering. The assigned reason
that stuttering diminishes with advancing age in con-
sequence of the wings of the imagination being clipjed
appears to me very imaginary.

78 STAMM EKING AND STUTTERING.

Dr. H. M'CoEMAc published in 1828 a treatise on
the cure of stammering, which he prefaces in these
terms : —

" That the following work will communicate, without
the possibility of a failure, to the reader, whether
medical or otherwise, the means of curing habitual
stoppage of speech, may appear at first sight, a little
paradoxical, when we consider that thousands of years
have elapsed without any individual having ever been
able to discover and communicate to the world any
means by which the distressing affliction could be
alleviated. But any scepticism that may exist on the
subject will quickly vanish, when the stutterer, once
in possession of the means, shall essay them on himself,
and find that without trouble or difiiculty, he may learn
to speak with the same facility as other men.

" The peasant and the artisan will equally receive
the benefit of this communication ; and that which for
many centuries wealth could not purchase, will now
be placed within the compass of even the most abject
poverty." And again, " The means I have provided
are so easy of execution, and so abundantly efficient,
that were it not for the sake of saving trouble, it would
be of little consequence whether the cliildreji contracted
it or noty

SECOND PEHIOD. 79

It appears that, being in 1826, in the City of New-
York, Dr. M'Cormac was given to^understand that a
Mrs. Leigh of that city was very successful in the
removal of impediments of speech. As he could obtain
no information of the method employed, he considered
that what another had done, he might possibly do
likewise. "No medical work," say Dr. M'Cormac,
so far as I knew, or now know, contained the least
satisfactory information on the subject, and all the
means which I had ever heard proposed or read of, were
equally ineffectual and useless. This ignorance I con-
sidered, and truly, as an opprobrium jnecltcorum, — a dis-
grace to the science of medicine and its professors, and
I earnestly desired to become the instrument of re-
moving it."

Dr. M'Cormac now employed much of his time in
pondering on this subject until he arrived at the acme
of his desires ; for it suddenly occurred to him that
the sole and proximate cause of stuttering was an
attempt to speak when the lungs are in a state of col-
lapse, or nearly so.

"In this," says the doctor, "consists the discovery
hitherto made by none. The patient endeavours to
speak when the lungs are empty, and cannot. We can
utter a voice without speech or words, but not the
latter without the forrrer."

80 STAMMERING Alfl) STUTTERING.

The cause from which all impediments of speech
arise, being apparently so simple, the remedy proposed
is equally easy, for he says : " The main thing to be
attended to, and which, in fact, is the ground-work of
the whole system of cure, is to expire the breath
strongly each time, when attempting to speak, the
lungs being previously filled to the utmost, or, in other
words, to reverse the habit of stuttering, which is, that
of trying to speak without expiring any air."

Remarks.

Dissenting from Dr. M'Cormac's assumption that
stutterers invariably try to speak with empty lungs,
the remedy which he proposes, viz., to fill the lungs to
the utmost extent, and to expel the words with force is
inapplicable. In some few cases, where the voice is in
fault, the patient may be benefited ; but in most in-
stances, the practice recommended is more likely to
aggravate the impediment than to remedy it. The
regulation of the breath is no doubt of the utmost im-
portance in all cases ; but it must not be effected in the
way indicated by Dr. M'Cormac.

The error into which this author has fallen must be
partly attributed to the false premise from which he

SECOND PliRIOD. 81

started, namely, that the Toice is indispensable to ar-
ticulation. *'We can," he observes, "utter a voice
without words, but not the latter without the former/'
The stutterer should, therefore, cause his vocal cords to
vibrate, and that he can only effect by forcible expira-
tion. Now, it is well known that in whispering we
articulate perfectly, without producing any voice. A
person whose vocal cords are obliterated from dis-
ease may still be able to whisper out his thoughts ; the
voice is gone, but the articulation remains."^* The
vocal cords being unconcerned, the tone can, in whis-
pering, be neither raised or lowered, as in normal
speech, when both, the vocal and articulating organs
are in action.

Hervez de Chegouin,! says " Stammerers have
hitherto, convinced of their incurability, resigned
themselves to their fate. Uncertain as to the cause,
traditional remedies were resorted to. We were told*
of Demosthenes and his pebbles ; but, by some fatality,
pebbles don't cure stuttering now-a-days. We were
then recommended to articulate slowly ; and in point
of fact, stammering is then less sensible. But the

* See Philosnp/nj of Voice and Speech.

f Ttecherchcs sur las C ruses du Bcgaicnient, P^rip, 1830.

F

82 STAMMERING AND STUrXERINO.

reason why, was not known. In placing myself before
a looking-glass and pronouncing each syllable sepa-
rately, I did not stutter ; but when I endeavoured to
join several syllables, which required a change of form
and position of the articulating organs, I had the same
difficulty."

" The cause of stuttering consists either in the short-
ness of the tongue or the vicious disposition of the
fraenum, which fixes it to the inferior part of the mouth,
and thus restricts its motions. It is true that the frsenum
may be short or long in persons who articulate well,
but in comparing the tongue of a stutterer with that of
another individual, it will be found that the frsenum of
the former extends more to the top of the tongue, or
that it is harder and thicker, and also that the tongue
is shorter, so that to raise it towards the pharynx
though not impossible, is yet very difficult. If I, then,
find that the cause has its seat in the frsenum, I divide
it, and if the tongue be too short, I double the dental
arches by inserting within a silver arch, by which they
are brought nearer to the tongue." This instrument
Mr. Hervez calls cintre.

Remarks.
The abnormal condition of the tongue may, indeed

SECOND PERIOD. 83

produce stammering, but never actual stuttering. Mr,
Hervez's chitre may be useful in cases when a portion
of the tongue has been lost from disease. A con-
genital shortness of the tongue is not often met with, nor
does it, when existing, cause stuttering. Neither will
the division of the frsenvim cure stuttering ; and I have
had under my care many pupils whose affection dates
from an unskilful and unnecessary operation of that
kind.

Dr. Aknott's Theory and Remedy.* — " The most
common case of stuttering, however, is not, as has been
universally believed, where the individual has a diffi-
culty in respect to some particular letter or articulation,
by the disobedience to the will or power of association
of the parts of the mouth which should form it ; but
where the spasmodic interruption occurs altogether
behind or beyond the mouth, viz., in the glottis, so as
to affect all the articulations."

Starting from the principle that the closure of the
glottis is the chief cause of stuttering, it follows that a
stutterer is instantly cured, if, by having his attention
directed to it, he can keep it open. In order to effect this.
Dr. Arnott advises to begin pronouncing or droning any
simple sound, as the e of the English word, berry,

» Elements of I'/iijsics, &c. G. Niel Arnott, M.D.

84 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

whereby the glottis is opened, and the pronunciation of
the following sounds is lendered easy. The words
should be joined together, as if each phrase formed but
one long word, nearly as they are joined in singing ; if
this be done, the voice never stops, the glottis never
closes, and there is, of course, no stutter. With regard
to the strangeness of such a mode of enunciation. Dr.
Arnott observes : " There are many persons not ac-
counted peculiar in their speech, who, in seeking words
to express themselves, often rest long between them, on
the simple sound of e mentioned above, saying, for in-
stance, hesitatingly, ' e\ e think e you may," —

the sound never ceasing until the end of the phrase, how-
ever long the person may require to pronounce it.

Peofesok Muller* agrees with Dr. Arnott, in con-
sidering the immediate cause of stammering to be a
spasmodic affection of the glottis, and that the cure
must, therefore, be effected by conquering this morbid
tendency to closure by voluntarily keeping it open.
For this purpose, Dr. Arnott advises that the patient
should connect all his words by an intonation of the
voice, continued between the different words, as is done
by persons who speak vvith hesitation. "This plan,"
observes MuHer, " may afiord some benefit, but cannot

* ■ Elctnents of Physiolotji/, IranslalcdLy W. Baly, M.D., 18-37

SECOND PERIOD. 85

do everything, since the main impediment occurs in
the middle of words." He, therefore, advises, in addition
to Dr. Arnott's plan, the following procedmre : *' The
patient should practise himself in reading sentences in
which all letters, which cannot be pronounced with a
vocal sound, namely, the explosives, should be omitted,
and only those consonants included which are suscep-
tible of an accompanying intonation, and that the sound
should be much prolonged. By this method, a mode
of enunciation would b^ attained, in which the glottis is
never closed, owing to the articulation being combined
with vocalisation. When the stammerer has long
practised himself in this manner, he may proceed to
the explosive sounds. In such a plan of treatment, the
patient himself would perceive the principle, while the
ordinary method — that of Madame Leigh — is mere
groping in the dark, neither teacher nor pupil knowing
the principles of the method pursued."

Remarks.

The so called spasmodic closure of the glottis, con-
sidered by Drs. Arnott and Miiller, and their followers, as
the chief cause of stuttering is, I am convinced, not a
cause, but an effect, produced by the misemployment of

86 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

the respiratory and vocal organs — in short, by the
application of inadequate means to surmount the
difficulty. If the contraction of the glottis were
spasmodic^ in the proper sense of the terra, the patient
would scarcely have the power, which he undoubtedly
possesses, even in the severest form, to arrest it in-
stantly by silence.

Again, stuttering does not, as frequently asserted,
occur only at the explosive sounds, hence, the omit-sion
of these letters in the exercised, as recommended by
Miiller, will not always stop the paroxysm.

Those who make use of the trick of an intervening e
sound for the purpose of keeping the glottis open, must
be reminded that, in order to derive any benefit from
the artifice, the next sound must closely follow, other-
wise the glottis will again contract. That such a mode
of drawling enunciation attracts, comparatively, little
notice, is a proposition to which I cannot subscribe.
In some cases, it is, perhaps, more disagreeable to the
listener than the original defect. In justice to Dr.
Arnott, it may be observed, that he expressly states,
that though the simple sound, the e of berry, is a means
of keeping the glottis open, there are many other cases
in which other means are more suitable, as the intelli-
gent preceptor soon discovers.

SECOND PERIOD. 87

Dr. Schulthess* distinguishes idiopathic, sympto-
matic, and sympathetic stuttering. The first depends
upon disharmony between innervation and the action of
the vocal and articulating organs. Stuttering, the result
of imitation, is idiopathic.

Stuttering is sympathetic, if the disorder of the larynx
is consensual, owing to an affection of the brain, or
the abdominal viscera.

Symptomatic stuttering generally disappears with the
affection, of which it is the symptom.

In sy^nptomatic stuttering we must combat the affec-
tion of which it is a symptom. When stuttering is
sympathetic, the treatment must be directed to the
primary evil which produced it, and which has chiefly
its seat in the abdomen and the brain. But though
stuttering may orginally be a secondary symptom, it
may, by long continuance, become idiopathic ; we
must, then, after having removed the original cause,
direct our attention to the spasmodic affection of the
larynx, which may still remain. In idiopathic stutter-
ing, we must internally and externally try such remedies
which directly or indirectly act upon the vascular,
vegetative, and nervous system generally; but especially
upon the vocal and sympathetic nerves — remedies
* Das Stammeln und Stottern. Zurich, 1830.

88 TAMMEBING AND STUTTERING.

whicti have proved beneficial in other convulsive
diseases, such as epilepsy, chorea, hooping cough, &c.

Among external applications, antispasmodics, resol-
vent embrocations on the throat, and the vicinity of the
larynx may be useful. Derivatives, setons, blisters,
either on the throat, behind the ears, the neck, the
chest, the pit of the stomach, or at distant regions,
have, at times, produced good effects. " Thus," he says,
" a stutterer was much relieved after applying to the
chest the antimonial ointment."

Though agreeing with Dr. Arnott as to the spasmodic
state of the glottis, he doubts whether the enunciation
of a simple vowel sound will much relieve the stutterer.
Dr. Schulthess concludes his work by expressing a wish
that some person would take the trouble of embodying,
in a single volume, all the methods which have occa-
sionally succeeded, so that the practitioner might have
his choice of remedies in case of failure.

Remarks.

Db. ScHulTiiESs's work is, in many respects, a very
meritorious performance. He does not, however, appear
to have enjoyed much opportunity for practice. Hence,
his views are theoretical, and his fault consists in

SECOND PERIOD. tjy

having treated the subject chiefly from a medical point
of view. Though fully admitting the paramount im-
portance of a psychical treatment, which, as he observes,
has been successfully employed when medical treat-
ment only aggravated the disorder, he still considered
stuttering, in most cases, a disease or symptomatic
of a corporeal affection — an opinion which is daily
losing ground, and which I cannot at all agree in.

SiE Charles Bell* attributes to the pharynx a much
greater share in articulation than is generally allowed.
He considers that this smaller cavity is substituted for
the larger cavity of the chest, to the great relief of
the speaker, and the incalculable saving of muscular
exertion.

Both the musical notes in singing, and the vowels in
speech are affected by the form and dimensions of the
pharynx, and it is during the distention of the bag of
the pharynx that the breath ascends and produces the
sound which proceeds and gives the character to the
explosive letters, and the pharynx,^ after being dis-
tended, contracts, and forces open the lips.

He further observes that, with each motion of the
tongue or lips, there is a correspondence in the action
of the velum and pharynx, so that the compression o
Philosophical Transactions, 1832.

90 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

the thorax, the adjustment of the larynx and glottis,
the motions of the tongue and lips, and his actions of
the pharynx and palate must all consent before a word
is uttered.

Applying this to impediments of speech, Sir Charles
remarks that, " in a person who stutters, the imperfec-
tion is obviously in the power of intonation, and not in
defectTof a single part. The stutterer can sing without
hesitation or^spasm, because in singing, the adjustment
of the glottis and the propulsion of the breath by the
elevated chest, are accomplished and continue uninter-
ruptedly, neither does he experience any distress in
pronouncing the vowels and liquid consonants. For
the same reason, and if he study to commence his
speech with a vowel sound, he can generally add to the
vibration, already begun, the proper action of the
pharynx. Another necessary combination distresses
the stutterer, namely, the action of the expiratory
muscles, and those of the throat. He expels the breath
BO much in his attempts at utterance, that, to produce
a sound at all, the ribs must be forcibly compressed.
To remove this necessity, if he be made to fill his lungs
and elevate the shoulders, the elasticity of the compages
of the chest will come into play, so as to expel
the breath without effort, and he will speak with

SECOND PERIOD.

91

comparative facility and comfort. Accordingly, to
commence speaking with the chest fully inflated, to
pitch the Toice properly, to keep measured time in
speaking, and to raise the voice on a liquid letter or
vowel, are some of the common means recommended for
the cure of it ; and they are certainly those which tend
to overcome the difficulty in combining the organs of
speech when the defect arises from no disorder or mal-
formation of the organs of speaking."

Eemarks.

It will be perceived that our distinguished physiologist
considers stuttering not as a disease, but chiefly as the
result of disordered respiration. He, therefore, lays
down no specific plan, but recommends the common
means which, by regulating the respiratory acts, may
tend to overcome the difficulty of the stutterer in com-
bining the action of the organs of speech.

Dr. Voisin* being afflicted with an impediment in
his speech, left no method untried, from the pebbles of
Demosthenes to the method of Mrs. Leigh and Mal-
bouche, for the purpose of removing it. Chance first led
him to the discovery of the method he recommends. He

* Bulletin de V Acad. Roy. de Med. 1837.

92 STAMMEBING AND STUTTERING.

was reading a paper before a society, and wishing to
do so with energy, he happened to look in a mirror
which was opposite him, and perceived that he rested
the border of his right hand upon his chin, in a manner
80 as to depress the inferior maxilla and hold the mouth
half open. The idea immediately suggested itself that
this instinctive and mechanical movement might con-
tribute to his reading more promptly and easily. In
fact, upon ceasing the pressure the difficulty of ex-
pression was quickly reproduced ; but upon replacing
his hand the freeness of the articulation immediately
returned. Endeavouring to give an account of this, he
observes : first, that the mouth was kept half open,
the distance between the teeth being a line and a half.
Second, that the tongue, abandoned to itself, in the
state of repose, placed itself against the inferior dental
border, whilst during pronunciation it is projected for-
wards and upwards, but is withdrawn almost imme-
diately behind the alveolar arch. Third, that a medium
pressure is necessary upon the chin ; this should be
sufficiently strong to resist the muscles which move
the inferior maxilla, without impeding its movement
of elevation, so strong as to prevent perfect approxima-
tion. To produce this pressure, and at the same
me make it e xcusable, it is necessary to use a certain

SECOND PERIOD. 93

delicate art, so that the manoeuvre may not appear
forced, but on the contrary, almost natural. This
pressure should be made with the external border of
the right or left hand indiscriminately, the thumb
applied to the chin, and the fingers free. He hcs
obsei-ved the same in other individuals afflicted with
impediment.

Remarks.

TiiEKE are few cases in which any benefit will be
derived from the artifice recommended. It is at best
but a palliative not reaching the cause of the evil ; nor
was Dr. Voisin cured by it. The pressure upon the
chin during enunciation may, in some instances, give
temporary relief; and as beards are now all the fashion,
it may be efiected by holding the hirsute appendage,
and drawing down the lower jaw without exciting too
much attention.

Dk. Marshall Hall, in his Diseases of the Nervous
System, 1841, says : "In Stammering the act of
volition is rendered imperfect by an action independent
and subversive of the will and of true spinal origin.
In some instances, an act of inspiration is excited at
the same tiinc, which is equally iuvolunlary ; but in

94 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

o-eneral, there is a violent effort of expiration, and, in
the worst cases, the disease is of an almost convulsive
character. Stammering, as a diseas«, is sometimes
induced by a morbid condition of the intestines, acting
through the incident nerves. Dr. Bostock has re-
corded such a case in the Medical Chirurgical Trans-
actions, vol. xvi, p. 72 ; it was cured by purgative
medicines."

*' In all cases this affection is aggravated by indis-
position, and by emotion or agitation. It is best
remedied when not hereditary or inveterate, by atten-
tion to the general health, and especially by purgative
and tonic medicines, and by acquiring a habit of self-
possession, and of speaking in a subdued, continuous
tone, first dilating the thorax.

*' Stammering is very like a partial chorea ; it is
not I think, as Dr. Arnott supposes, an affection of
the glottis or larynx, that is of the organ of the voice,
but of some of the different parts which constitute the
machinery of articulation.

*' If the recent observations of Mr. Yearsley prove
correct, that stammering is to be cured by excision
of the uvula and tonsils, a new ray of light will be
thrown on this singular malady. Is the uvula the
excitor-rcgulator of articulation : Is it, in cases of

SECOND PERIOD. 95

stammering, unduly excitable ? Every voluntary act
combines with itself an excitomotory action. The con-
tact of an object with the palm of the hand, the sole
of the foot, induces an additional muscular contraction
beyond that of the original stimulus of volition. Articu-
lation may be regulated in the same manner. A
reflex arc between the mouth and the organs of articu-
lation would not be more marvellous than many others.
How extraordinary, for example, is the act of vomiting
induced by irritation of the fauces! How singular
that substances passing the fauces in deglutition do not
produce the same effect. How do the incident excitor
nerves of vomiting escape ? I may further ask, what
is the state and position of the u^oila in articulation ?
The velum, and with it the uvula, are elevated and
placed so as to close the posterior nares, whenever cer-
tain letters are pronounced. Are incident nerves
regulators of articulation excited in this case ? And
are they unduly excited in stammering ? And is stam-
mering not only an undue spinal action (as I stated
many years ago), but an undue rejlex spinal action ?
These interesting questions, time and long investigation
alone can determine. Farther, can the uvula and
adjacent parts be implicated in chorea ? "

In the Journal of the Rnijal Institution, for 1841,

96 STAMMERING AND STUTTERINO.

Dr. M. Hall, further very justly observes : " All results
prove that the larynx is not closed in stammering, and,
indeed, that its closure and stammering are totally in-
compatible with each other. Where articulation is
interrupted, it is by the co-operation of a part anterior
to the larynx ; it is, in a word, not an interruption of
the organ of voice, but of speech."

Dr. Lichtinger in a series of papers on stuttering
[Med. Zeitunfft 1844), distinguishes those cases which
depend on an affection of the nervous system from such
which result from malformation of the organs of speech.
Following Dr. Marshall Hall, he further distinguishes
cerebral and spinal stuttering. In the former, affec-
tions of the brain interfere with the efforts of the will,
so that spinal activity preponderates unregulated. On
the other hand, spinal stuttering must be referred to
that portion of the cord which is situate between the
origin of the fifth and seventh and those resj)iratory
nerves that supj^Iy the chest and belly. This may be
either central when the cause exists in the tract men-
tioned, or eccentric when the cause is seated in some
of the reflex nerves.

SECOND PERIOD. 9T

American Theory and Method.'^'

The method said to have been invented in 1825, by
Mrs. Leigh, an English woman residing at New York,
created great sensation both in America and Europe.
Magendie, in his report to the French Academy (March.
11, 1828), gives the following account of this lady:— ►
Mrs. Leigh, residing at New York, having become a
widow when about thirty-six years old, was received
in the house of Dr. Yates, one of whose daughters
about eighteen years of age, laboured under a severe
impediment of speech. In return for the great kind-
ness with which she was treated, Mrs. Leigh deter-
mined to free the young lady from her impediment.

Deriving no information from any English work
treating of the subject, she tried a number of remedies,
until she arrived at her " infallible " method. Con-
sidering that the pressure of the tongue against the
inferior incisors was the sole cause of stuttering, the
great point of her system consisted in inducing the
patient, during enunciation, to alter the position of

* Although in clironological order, this theory ought ta
have been inserted before, it was deemed advisable to pro-
duce it here in connection with its chief propagator in.
Europe, Mr. Malebouche.

G

98 STAMMEEING AND STUTTERING.

that organ by placing it to the top of the palate, by
which means, it is said, she succeeded in curing Miss-
Yates of her infirmity.

Dr. Warren of Boston, however, insists that the
above great discovery was not made by Mrs. Leigh at
all, but by Dr. Yates, the father of the young lady ;
and that he merely consented that the system should
pass under her name, from fear of being considered an.
empiric.

Dr. Zitterland, on the other hand, in a pamphlet
published in 1828, at Aix la Chapelle, says, that Mrs.
Leigh's husband had been a stutterer, and that the
discovery was the result of nine years constant obser-
vation. Others assert, that Mr. Broster had practised
the same method before Mrs. Leigh, and that it was
from England that the system was transplanted to
America. Be this as it may, certain it is that Mr.
Malebouche, a Frenchman, bought the secret for a
round sum of Mrs. Leigh, and introduced it, in 1827,
into the Netherlands and Germany. Both the Nether-
land and Prussian Governments considered the subject
of sufficient importance, to grant to those who were
in possession of the secret considerable privileges, and
to appoint them professors at public establishments.

Mrs. Leigh's system was shortly afterwards intro-

SECOND PERIOD. 99^'

duced into France by Mr. F. Malebouche, a brother of
the gentleman who purchased the secret from Mrs..
Leigh. As Mr. F. Malebouche, in the course of his
practice, found the method, in many cases, inefficient,
he set about perfecting it, and presented to the French
Academy of Science, in 1841, a memoir containing
his improved system of treating defective utterance.

In this memoir, Mr. Malebouche reproaches the
American method that it is not applicable to all
species of stuttering, and that the cures effected by it
were not lasting. He had, therefore, remedied its short-
comings, and discovered a more perfect method of cure.
His starting point is directly to oppose the curative
remedies to the vicious action of the organs of speech ;
as he does not think that respiration has much to do
with the production of stuttering, he deems it unneces-
sary to occupy himself with this fundamental element
of speech, which, he assumes, becomes regularised in
its actions in proportion as stuttering diminishes.
The lips form a special object of Mr. Malebouche's
treatment. "With regard to the tongue, Mr. Male-
bouche recommends that not merely the tip, but the
whole organ should be raised and applied to the
palate, retracting it as much as possible. In this
manner, the stutterer begins to perceive the motions-

100 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

necessary for pronunciation ; he must be made, while
the tongue is thus glued to the palate, to pronounce
all kinds of syllables and words, which he succeeds
in effecting after a longer or a shorter time, according
to the intelligence of the pupil, or the degree of
-flexibility of his organs. The pronunciation, no doubt,
is much altered — it is thick, clammy ; but experience
has proved that this defect disappears in proportion
as the pupil becomes master of his movements. The
teacher should not yield to the desire of the stutterer
to be soon relieved from this mode of enunciation ; it
must be continued for a considerable time, until the
pupil can, with the tongue placed in the indicated
position, enunciate distinctly. It is important, nay-
indispensable, that during the time of the treatment,
the subject should, excepting during the hours devoted
to the exercises, keep perfect silence. The invariable,
infallible rule is this — to articulate as distinctly as
possible, with the least possible detachment of the
tongue from the palate. The more the pupil succeeds
in articulating clearly, while the tongue is retracted,
the more perfect is the cure.

Remarks.
'!'he chief point insisted on by Mrs. Leigh, that

SECOND PEEIOD. 101

in stuttering tlie tongue is fixed to the inferior incisors,
is not true. It is also evident that as neither Mrs.
Leigh or Malebouche attach any importance to dt fee"
tive vocalisation and the respiratory functions, some
of the most essential elements in the causation o*^
stuttering remain unnoticed, and the method is, conse-
quently, one sided and ineffective.

CoLOMBAT''^* assumes two species of stuttering, each
having several subdivisions.

1. Begaiement lahio-choreique, so termed on account
of its analogy with chorea, or St. Vitus's Dance. It con-
sists of spasmodic motions of the lips and tongue, and
other moveable organs, and conduces to the frequent
repetitions of the labial sounds.

2. Begaiement guttm'o-tetanic, consisting mainly
in a rigidity of the respiratory muscles, and those of
the larynx and pharynx, and manifesting itself by a
sudden stoppage of the breath, owing to the contraction
of the glottis, and, consequently, affecting the emission
of sound. The guttural sounds g, k, q, are cliitfly
influenced in this species.

Those labouring under the first named defect, are
usually persons of a lively disposition, whilst those

* Trait e de tous les vices de la parole et en pariiculier du
Regalement, &c. Paris 1840.

102 STAMMERIKa JLND STUTTERI^'G.

•subject to the. second species, articulate slowly, and
make considerable efforts to produce the disobedient
sounds. Colombat followed the opinion of his pre-
decessors, in assuming as the proximate cause of stut-
tering, the want of harmony between the nervous
influence and the muscles distributed to the organs of
speech. He, therefore, devised a series of orthophonic
exercises, in order to restore the harmony between
nervous action and the organs of articulation ; tKe
most efiective agent in these exercises being the appli-
cation of rhythm in speaking.

The orthophonic gymnastics have the advantage of
acting physically and morally; they act physically
upon all the respiratory muscles ; upon the lungs, the
larynx, and specially upon the glottis, the tongue, and
the lips. The respiration effected in the mode indi-
cated has for its object, to relieve the spasmodic
♦constriction of the vocal cords by opening the glottis,
while, at the same time, the chest is expanded by a
large quantity of air \vhich escaj^es slowly by an ex-
piration which should be gradual, and only sufficient
to produce the sound.

By placing the finger upon the pomum Adami every-
one can convince himself, that on raising the tongue
iind turning the tip towards the pharynx, the larynx.

SECOND PERIOD. 103

descends, and the glottis enlarges, whilst in stuttering,
the larynx is usually raised, by which the glottis is
constricted. The position of the tongue, as above,
renders it almost impossible to stutter upon the gut-
tural, dental and palatal letters, whilst the infirmity
is soon exhibited when it is depressed. The transversal
tension of the lips, as indicated, tends to relieve
that species of convulsive tremor which obtains in
articulating the labials when the lips form a sort of cur-
vilinear sphincter. As different causes never produce
the same effects, it is easy to conceive that the disagree-
able repetitions cannot take place if the mechanism,
which produces them, is altered in an opposite direc-
tion. Tiiere is also a condition upon which he insists,
that the patient should, for at least a fortnight, not
speak with any body else, or only with such individuals
who are under treatment for the same infirmity,
otherwise the precepts are soon forgotten, and the
influence of the method is only ephemeral.

*• After what has been stated," says Colombat, " it
is evident that rhythm is one of the chief phases of
my method "

Remarks.
Although Mr. Colombat obtained the Monthyon

104 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

prize from tlie French Academy, it is difficult to
discover that he has thrown any new light on the infir-
mity. Colombat's great merit consists in having syste-
matised the subject; although his many sub-divisions
are useless, and some of his principles erroneous.

There can be no doubt that a slow and measured
delivery sometimes tends to diminish stuttering, and
may prove beneficial in some cases of defective utter-
ance ; but nothing can be more erroneous than to
assume that rhythm, however skilfully employed, is
by itself, sufficiently potent permanently to remove
a severe impediment. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc —
because rhythm is in some uncomplicated cases a very
useful adjunct : it has been by most writers cried up
as a panacea for stuttering. The real fact is that it is
not the rhythm which produces a beneficial efiect, but
its influence in altering, for the time being, the manage-
ment of the breath; for the moment the patient begins
his ordinary discourse the defect immediately reappears.
Unless, therefore, the fans et origo mali — vicious res-
piration be first attended to, so as to establish a syn-
chronous action between the respiratory, vocal, and
enunciating organs under all circumstances, rhythm
alone will produce little or no effect.

SECOND PERIOD. 105^'

Dr. Becquerel''* believes that the cause of stuttering
is a dynamic affection of the respiratory muscles, having
probably its primary seat in the nervous system. The
convulsive movements of the vocal and articulating
organs ; the difficulty of pronouncing certain syllables
and their frequent repetition, are merely the conse-
quences of the premature escape of the air which is
not employed in the formation of sound. It is, there-
fore, necessary to prevent this escape of air, by retain-
ing it as much as possible during speech. In stuttering
it will be seen that the walls of the thorax sink . too
often, to expel the excess of air introduced. The
result of it is that a larger quantity of air escapes than
is necessary for articulation, and a sensible current of
air arriving in the buccal cavity at the moment when
the tongue, the lips, and the buccal parieties contract
for articulation, impedes their free action, and produces
stuttering. Such being the case, the loss of air must
be prevented by retaining it as much as possible, and
employing it in the formation of articulate sound.

Hemarka.
Dr. Becquerel's theory, though defective, con-

Traite du Begaietnent. Paris, 1847.

106 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

tains much that is true, which, in some cases may,
under careful guidance, be carried out in practice. It
appears that Dr. Becquerel himself — one of the most
eminent living French physicians — laboured under an
impediment of speech, and as none of his colleagues
were able to afford him any help, he applied to a Mr.
Jourdaut, (not a medical practitioner) by whom he was
much relieved, if not altogether cured. And it is the
theory of Jourdant which our author has amplified and
developed in his work.

Dr. Carpenter'^* concurs in the opinion of most
authors that the defect called Stammering essentially
consists in the want of power to combine the different
actions concerned in vocalization. He also considers
a disordered action of the nervous centres as the proxi-
mate cause ; though this may be (to use the language
of Dr. M. Hall) either of centric or eccentric origin.
And whereas the stammerer experiences his greatest
difficulties in the pronunciation of the consonants of
the explosive class, he approves of Miiller's suggestion
that the patient would do well to practice sentences
from which such consonants are omitted.

With regard to the cure of stammering, Dr. Carpenter
makes the following suggestions : —

* Principles of Human Physiology, 5th edition.

SECOND PERIOD, 107

" One of the most important objects to be aimed at
in the treatment of stammering consists in the preven-
tion of all emotional disturbances in connection with
the art of speech ; and thus requires the exercise and
the direction of thought in the following modes :

" To reduce mental emotion by a daily, hourly habit
of abstracting the mind from the subject of stammering
both while speaking and at other times.

" To avoid exciting mental emotion by (not ?) at-
tempting unnecessarily to read or speak when the
individual is conscious that he shall not be able to per-
form these actions without great distress.

" 3. To elude mental emotion by taking advantage
of any little artifice to escape from stammering, so
long as the artifice continues to be a successful one."

^emarlis.

It would thus appear that Dr. Carpenter very justly
looks upon stammering (which word he uses synony-
mously with stuttering), rather as a psychical afi*ection
"which must be combated by psychical means. That
there are some stutterers who are more free in their
utterance when not thinking of their difficulty, or
when their attention is, during speech, directed to

108 STAMMEKING AND STUTTERING.

another object is very true, and in such cases the
act of abstracting the mind from the subject of
stammering may prove beneficial if the pupil had
the power to do so ; but the difficulty consists in
reducing such a theory to practice. Nothing is easier
than to advise the patient to withdraw his attention
from his affliction — nothing more difficult to the,
stutterer to effect it.

To exercise a voluntary power over the direction of
our thought when we are, by actual sensation, con-
stantly reminded of our affliction, requires a mental
effort which but few are capable of. And if the case
be really merely psychical, and the patient have
sufficient mastery over his mind, would it not be more
rational to advise the patient to do just the reverse ;
that is to say, to direct his attention to his affliction,
and to overcome it by concentrated firmness of pur-
pose ? We shall have to recur to this subject.

In extreme cases of mental abstraction and excite-
ment, we find occasionally that fluent speech is given
for the time ; but in the majority of cases it is quite
the reverse, especially if the person is labouring under
fsar^ which is known to stop the secretions, especially
of the salivary glands, causing a dryness in the mouth.
Nor is it alone the stutterer who is often rendered

SECOND PERIOD. 109

unable to speak under its influence. The most trivial

thing will often obstruct an elegant flow of language,

and overthrow an entire chain of thought, causing an.

utter incapability of pronouncing a word at will ; as

instance, Macbeth :

*• But wherefore could I not pronounce
Amen ? I had most need of blessing ; and Amen
Stuck in my throat ! ' *

And here I may state a circumstance very little
known, which is, that some subjects stutter only ia
the presence of certain persons, wjiile their articulation
is more free in the presence of others. When a
patient has once stuttered in conversing with a cer-
tain individual, the chances are that he will do so again
on a similar occasion. Be it from association or other
causes, there can be no doubt as to the fact itself.

CHAPTER VIII.

SURGICAL OPERATIONS.

JouBERT {Historical Researches) endeavours to sho\r
that operations for defective utterance are not so new
as is generally believed. 'Galen (200 a. d.) speaks of
the thickening, induration, and shortening of the
tongue, as influencing articulation, and recommends
cauterisation. Aetius, 400 years after Galen, also
speaks of tongue-tied (ancyglossi). Paul of Aegina,
in his Opus de re Med. advises the division of the
ligature.

In 1608, Fabricius Hildanus operated upon his
little brother, who, at the age of four years could not
pronounce a word on account of the shortness and
thickness of the frsenum, by which the tongue could
not reach the teeth and the palate. Dionis, in 1672,
proposed to make two or three small incisions in the
tongue of such children who seem not to articulate
easily. All these operations appear, however, to have
been confined to the division of the frsenum, an opera-

SURGICAL OPERATIONS. Ill

tion as old as surgery, which has even been perfoi med
by mothers and nurses.

It was reserved for modern surgery to extend the
operations to the muscular apparatus of the tongue,
and DieiFenbach is generally considered as the chief
authorit}" for the practice.

DiEiFENBACH in his letter to the French Academy,
March 1841, says: "The idea of curing stammering by
means of an operation, first presented itself to my
mind on being requested, by a patient cured of strabis-
mus, to operate upon him for defective utterance.
My attention being directed to the subject I remarked,
indeed, that many persons affected by strabismus, had
at the same time an impediment in their speech. As
I was of opinion that the derangement in the mecha-
nism of articulation was caused by a spasmodic con-
dition of the air passages, which extended to the
lingual and facial muscles, I conceived that, by inter-
rupting the innervation in the muscular organs which
participate in this abnormal condition, I might succeed
in modifying or completely curing it." "^

* Though there may be cases in which squinting is cou-
comitant with, psellism, they are exceptional, and have little
or no relation to each other, whilst by interrupting the inner-
vation, the respective parts are not merely modified, but
paralysed in their functions.

112 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

Amiissat also claims the honour of applying surgical
operations for the cure of defective utterance. In his
letter to the French Academy (Feb. 1841), he writes
that he conceived his idea of the method of dividing
the genio-glossi as an extension of the operation for
squinting, and that he communicated the idea to Mr.
Philipps, when no one at Paris knew that it was
treated so in Germany. Malebouche, on the other
hand, says that Mrs. Leigh had advised it, and that it
was acted upon years, before, in America.

Dr. R. Froriep again {Froriep^s Notizen, 1841) con-
ceived that the local cause of stammering was the
retraction of the lingual muscles on one side only,
which may be detected by the form of the tongue and
the neck. He therefore confined himself to dividing
the genio-glossus on one side only, and attributed to
this mode his own success, whilst the division of both
these muscles by Bonnet and others led to no certain
results.

Whether, or not, Dieffenbach first introduced the
practice, certain it is that the example of so high aa
authority gave rise to a host of operators, who by
cutting difierent ways, aspired to the honour of being
the inventors of some new method. They divided them-
selves in Castes. Philipp and Velpeau followed

SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 113

DiefFenbacli's or the Gerjnan method. Amussat,
Bonnet, Petrequin, and Robert in Marburg, divided the
genio-glossi and genio-hyoidei ; Langenbach in Goet-
tingen, the stylo-glossi and hyo-glossi, and Wolff the
nervus hypo-glossus. The English surgeons chiefly
confined themselves to the excision of the tonsils and the
uvula. The greatest zeal was exhibited in France, where
not less than 200 persons were operated upon within one
year. The rage for operations spread to America,
where Dr. A. Post performed the first operation, May,
1841, by dividing the genio-hyo-glossi near their
origin. Drs. Mott and Parker, of the New York Uni"
versity, devided the genio-hyo-glossi either by the
knife or scissors, cutting closely to the symphysis of the
lower jaw. In many instances the patients seemed
immediately to be much benefited, and spoke with,
fluency. A few hours, however, dispelled the delu-
sion, and they found themselves as bad as ever. Dr.
Detmold passed needles through the tongue, and
the same improvement followed, but as in the rest the
impediment returned.

The utility of these operations has been deduced
from their successful application in squinting, wry-neck
and clubfoot. The premises were wrong, and the con-
clusion false. In these affections the evil is permanent

114 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

and always associated with a contraction or shortening
of the respective muscles. Stuttering is, on the con-
trary, frequently temporary ; were it the result of an
organic defect it would be equally permanent. Dieffen-
bach found no organic defect in sixteen cases upon
which he operated, nor were there any found in forty
cases treated by Blume. Since then, the seat of stutter-
ing is not in the tongue, it follows that all operations
on that innocent organ are useless. No doubt, the
patient frequently ceases stuttering either from the
shock upon the system, or from his strong faith in the
efficacy of the operation ; but after the wound is healed
up, he relapses into his old habit^.

Nor is it true as asserted by some surgeons, that
stuttering frequently results from an abnormal condition
of the tonsils and the uvula, and that the excision of
these organs would relieve the impediment. Tumefac-
tion of the tonsils exists in most cases, without producing
stuttering, while few stutterers have enlarged tonsils ;
nor if they have, is it the cause of the infirmity. We
may, however, admit that hypertrophied tonsils, or an

* Schulthess cites a case of a young workman, a stutterer,
"whose arm was crushed by machinery so as to require am-
putation. He remained free from stuttering during the time
the wound was suppurating ; but the infirmity returned on
its being healed up.

STJRGICAL OPERATIONS. 115

abnormal condition of the tongue, the palate, and the
uvula, may and frequently does give rise to a stammer ;
that is to a defective articulation of certain sounds ;
but never are they the cause of stuttering, which, as
shov/n, essentially differs in its origin and its phenomena
from stammering. There is then something in a name,
i. e. in an exact definition of these affections ; for from
the confusion of the terras arose the confusion in
their treatment.

Besides organic defects, the cause of stuttering has
also been attributed to the defective action of the muscles
of speech, that is, either to debility or to spasmodic
action. Debility cannot be the cause, otherwise age,
wounds, issues, which weaken the muscles, would
increase the infirmity, and not, as experience shows,
diminish it. Debility may cause a bad enunciation
of individual sounds, that is stammering, but certainly
not stuttering. Nor is the local spasm of the glottis
the proximate cause ; as, affections of the larynx
rarely cause stuttering. All reasoning on this subject
has been in a circle, and it might as well have been
said a man stutters because he stutters.

Dr. Claessen, a distinguished German surgeon who
performed a variety of operations, says {Casper* s
IVorkenscrift, 1841) "Although the results of my

116 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

experience would lose nothing by comparing them with.
those published, assuming them to be strictly true,
still I am so little satisfied, that I have undertaken,
no operation of the kind since June 11th, though a
number of afflicted persons vehemently desired it.
I consider it my duty to dissuade all from performing
such operations, as it is exceeding rare that the fault is
in the action of the muscles, and that the evil is reme-
died by dividing them."

The following is a summary of surgical operations
which have been from time to time recommended in:
various cases of defective articulation : —

1 . Inability to enunciate the lingual r,

( Transverse incision into the upper surface of the forepart of
the tongue.)

2. Inability to enunciate the palatial r ov ch.
{Incision into the stylo-glossus, glosso-palatinus, with or toith-

out the excision of a triangular piece.)

3. Excision of a prismatic or longitudinal piece from
the tongue, if it be too voluminous.

4. Inability to pronounce the hard ff, k, and n g,
[Division of the genio-glossi and the genio-hyoidei.)

5. Imperfect articulation of d, t, s, z, in consequence
of the tip of the tongue not reaching the incisors.

(Division of the genio-glossi.)

The efforts made by my late father to put a stop to

SURGICAL OPEEATIONS. Il7

such operations in England, supported by the unsatis-
factory results obtained, proved after a time successful,
so that at last the practice was discountenanced by all
the most eminent members of the profession. In sup-
port of which I may quote the following passages from
a leading medical journal.

*'The sanguinary operations which have recently been
devised and executed, with the view of curing stam-
mering, are one of the greatest outrages upon modern
surgery. Although some of them had their origin
in legitimate motives, most we fear serve but to show
Tvhat ruthless expedients will be occasionally resorted
to for the purpose of acquiring professional fame,
however short-lived, and to what extent the igno-
rant and the credulous will become a prey to craft
and subtlety. If our indignation was awakened at the
barbarous cruelties practised upon dumb animals for the
sake of elucidating the truth, of physiology, how
much more ought it to be when we consider the mul-
titudes of our fellow-beings who have^ suffered them-
selves to be maimed and mutilated at the instigation
of individuals more remarkable for their reckless use
of the knife than for the soundness of the] ii^edical

Br if. and Foreign Med, Revieio, vol, xii.

118 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

" It is ascertained that persons who have stammered
in t])e highest degree, have been remarkable for the
perfect integrity of conformation and structure of all
the organs of voice and speech ; while others who have
laboured u:pder a faulty or d.seased condition of these
organs have preserved their articulation unimpaired."

But though it is now comparatively rare to hear of
an operation of cutting out a transverse wedge from
the tongue in cases of pscllismus, there are still persons
who submit to have their tonsils removed for thickness
of speech, and the uvula extirpated. The whole subject of
operations of this nature is ably handled hj Mr. Harvey,*
who says — " Another defect for which the removal of
these bodies has been most strangely and unaccount-
ably suggested is defective utterance. Now, how such,
an expedient for removing that painful and distressing
condition could enter the mind of anyone I cannot con-
ceive." That the operation of taking off the elongated
nvula is also useless there is ample proof given in the
work from which I have quoted.

Enlarged tonsils are often found in young persons,
but they grow out of it in time. In proof of this asser-
tion, I quote from Mr. Vincent, who says — " I have

* Oil Excision of ih'i Enlarrjid Tonsils audits Consequences^
By William Harvey, Esq., F.R.C.S., &c. Eenshaw. j

SUHGICAL OPERATIONS. 119

seen very many cases of enlarged tonsils, producing
the greatest annoyance in patients at fifteen, which,
have gradually assumed the natural size by the time
the subject arrived at maturity. If we consider the
great utility of these glands in secreting a mucus of a
peculiarly lubricating fluid, so valuiible in the economy
of deglutition, I cannot regard it as a good practice to
remove these parts so unsparingly as I have known.'*

Experience has shown mc that inflamed tonsils and
elongated uvula are often accompanied with stammer-
ing ; but on that being removed, this state generally
ceases The continual misuse of the organs, the vio-
lent action of the breath, which we often find in stut-
tering and stammering, are quite sufficient causes to
produce this result, which is, in most cases, only the
efiect of stammering, and according to the admitted
axiom, on the cause being removed the effect wilL
cease.

CHAPTER IX.

IS PSELLISM* A DISEASE?

The plea so long urged by medical authors that
psellism is a disease, and lies, therefore, within the pro-
vince of medicine, into which no layman has a right to
enter, is now generally abandoned ; and is at present
only advanced by some antediluvian practitioners.
On this point my late father wrote thus : —
" I deny that stuttering is a disease. It is an imper-
fection occasioned by organic, physical, or accidental
causes — the want of some proper regulation or use, and
not a disease — though the fruitful source of many dis-
eases, some of which, by re-action, may be confounded
with the original cause, such, for example, as palpita-
tion of the heart, derangement of the nervous system
pulmonary affections, all inducing constitutional de-
bility, both physical and mental, and frequently ending
in premature death. These are the effects of stuttering ;

* Psellism is here and elsewhere used as a generic term for
impediments of speech in general.

IS PSELLISM A DISEASE? 121

but therefore to call a misapplication of the tongue, the
jaws, the throat, or the breath, a disease, appears to me
a ridiculous error."

It is remarkable that the question whether stammer-
ing be a disease has already been discussed by the
Ancients. Thus we find in Gellius that stuttering and
stammering are rather vices than diseases, just as a
biting and kicking horse is vicious, but not diseased."^'

XJlpian {dig. tit.) says, it is asked whether the stam-
merer, thelisper, and such who hesitate in their speech,
and the halting, are sound ? I am of opinion they
are.f

It may be safely asserted that no idiopathic stutterer
"was ever cured by a mere therapeutic treatment.
Medice te ipsum cura ! Physician, cure thyself! Now,
it is a somewhat curious fact, that there are still alive
some eminent physicians, who, having been stutterers,
wrote books on psellism, giving very learned reasons as
to the how and why they and others stuttered, but
were not delivered from their infirmity until they con-

* Balbus autem et atypus vitiosi magis quam morbosi, ut
equus mordax aut calcitro, vitiosus non morbosus est.

f Qaesitum est aut balbus et blaesus, et atypus isque qui
tardius loquitur et varus et vatius sanus sit ! Et opinor eos
sanos esse.

122 STAMMEKING AND STUTTERING.

descended to place themselves under the care of a lay-
man, who had made the subject his exclusive study.
The fact is, that unless a medical man has for years
devoted all his energy to the subject, and brings to bear
upon it an ample knowledge of the various phases of
the disorder, founded upon rigorous deduction and ex-
tensive experience, combined with an intimate acquain-
tance with the structure of language and effective deli-
very, he is but little likely to benefit the* stutterer.

Most rational physicians novf admit, that discipline
of the vocal and articulating organs, under an expe-
rienced instructor, is the only means of overcoming
impediments of speech.

But while I deny that idiopathic stuttering is an
actual disease, I admit that cases of psellism, do
occur, requiring, in the first instance, the aid of the
physician or the surgeon. When, for example, I have
cause to presume that stammering is decidedly a sjnnp-
tom of a primary affection in some part of the nervous
centre, I never fail to recommend the applicant to con-
sult a respectable physician. Again, if the defect can
be clearly traced to defective organisation, the surgeon
must be called in to remedy it, if possible. Thus, when
a person has a cleft palate, science can supply the
defect by an artificial palate, after which the patient

IS PSELLISM A DISEASE? 123

still requires to be instructed how to make a proper
•use of the foreign organ ; m illustration of which, I
quote the following case ; —

"Mr. D. P., 83tat 17, has a genital fissure in the
palate — articulates very imperfectly. The sound of his
voice was very unpleasant, and many of his words are
unintelligible. Six months after the operation Mr. P.
had made no improvement in his speech, when he put
himself under the tuition of Mr. Hunt. In the course
of a few weeks an extraordinary change was effected,
and ere long the articulation was so different that little
more could be desired."*

There is a nervous affection, wliich, in more than one
of its essential features, bears agreat resemblance to some
sorts of psellism, namely Chorea^ or St. Vitus's Dance^
the characteristics of which are a want of control over
the movements of the muscles of one or more of the
limbs, the face, or the trunk. Like psellism, it usually
occurs before puberty, and is frequently as little under
the control of medicine as the irregular motions of the
respiratory and articulating organs in defective utter-

* Extracts from Observations on Cleft Palate. By WilHam
Ferguson, Esq. F.R.S., Professor of Surgery, King's College.
The details of the case are given in Vol, XVIII of the MedicO'
Chirurgical Transactions.

124 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

ance. Both increase or dimmish under nervous excite-
ment ; and so apparently similar are these affections^
that stuttering has been called a chorea of the arti-
culating muscles. But it is remarkable that, from
some not yet explained cause, chorea seems to be
chiefly confined to the female sex, and is now found ta
yield rather to gymnastic than to medical treatment, as
"will appear from the following extracts from a French
periodical.

" The first who employed gymnastics for the cure of
St. Vitus's Dance were the priests. The patients were
assembled after Mass, and made to dance to sacred
music, plaints were sung, which obliged them to dance
to measure. Becamier applied rhythm jn [numerous
convulsive affections. He was of opinion that if the
muscular motions could be rendered habitually regular
by alternate contraction and relaxation, a cure might
be effected. For this purpose he assembled his pa-
tients at night at the Place Vendome and made them-
follow the drummers, beating the tattoo. Any other
instrument, for instance, the metronome, may be em-
ployed. We commence to make the patients execute
on command, motions with one arm or one leg, after
■which we proceed to combined movements. Then
follow rapid movements, which are by far the easiest^

IS FSELLISM A DISEASE? 125

there being no sufficient interval for the choreic un-
certainty to supervene. Finally, we make them exe-
cute combined slow movements. "^ ^'

M, See reports that of twenty-two children treated
exclusively by gymnastics, eighteen were cured in.
twenty-nine days.

The results were less satisfactory when medicaments
were administered. M. Blache, Physician to the Hopital
des Enfants, concludes his memoire, read before the
Academic de Medecine, as follows : — 1. That no treat-
ment is so efficacious in chorea as the gymnastic, whe-
ther applied alone, or in combination with the sulphur
bath. 2. That the former can be employed in every
case, whilst other remedies are frequently counter-
indicated. 3. That in the gymnastic treatment amelio-
ration becomes apparent during the first few days. 4.
That whilst the disorder disappears the constitution,
generally is greatly benefited."^*

Thus it would appear that even in those cases, when
stammering or stuttering either results from, or co-
exists with chorea, systematic exercise of the various
organs, judiciously applied, will not only cure the
stammer and the primary affection, but will greatly
improve the constitution. It has ever formed part of

* Archives gen. de Medecine, 1854,

126 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

my system to combine oral instruction with the practical
training of all the organs, directly or indirectly concerned
in the production of sound and speech, by means of
appropriate gymnastic exercise calculated to streng-
then the respective organs, and to bring them under
the control of the pupil ; and I have the satisfaction of
knowing that few have left my establishment without
great improvement in their general health.

On this point I also quote the following, extracted
from the Irr-ationale of Speech : — "A stammerer's life
is (unless he be a very clod) a life of misery, growing
with this growth, and deepening as his knowledge of
life, and his aspirations deepen. One comfort he has,
truly — that the said life is not likely to be a long one.
Some readers may smile at this assertion. Let them
think for themselves. How many old people have they
ever heard stammer ? I have known but two. One is
a very slight case ; the other a very severe one. He,
a man of fortune, dragged on a painful and pitiable
existence — nervous, decrepid, effeminate, asthmatic —
kept alive by continual nursing. Had he been a
labouring man, he would have died thirty years sooner
than he did.

*' The cause is simple enough. Continued depression
of spirits wears out body as well as mind. The lungs.

IS PSELLISM A DISEASE ? 127'

never acting rightly, never oxygenate the blood suffi-
ciently. The vital energy, (whatever that may be) con-
tinually directed to ti.e organs of speech, and used up
there in the miserable spasms of misarticulation, can-
not feed the rest of the body : and the man too often
beco/nes pale, thin, flaccid, with contracted chest, loose-
ribs, and bad digestion. I have seen a stammering boy-
of twelve stunted, thin as a ghost, and with every sign
of approaching consumption. I have seen that boy, a
few months after being cured, upright, ruddy, stout,
eating heartily, and beginning to grow faster than he
had ever grown in his life. I never knew a single
case of cure in which the health did not begin to im-
prove there and then."

The intimate relations of body and mind, and their
mutual dependance upon each other, are constantly
manifested in the phenomena of utterance. Thus in
many cases the infirmity is increased or diminished,
according to the impaired or healthy state of the di-
gestive and other functions. If it cannot be denied that
nervousness may produce stammering or stuttering ;
it is not less true that stuttering will produce ner-
vousness, and perhaps, in the course of time, organic
disease. In such cases the cure of stuttering will tend
to re-establish health. I have known it arrest the

128 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

progress of pulmonary disease, while in every case, its
removal has had the effect of calming and invigorating
the whole system.

The action on the young is in some cases very marked,
often stopping the growth.*' I have known youths
after the cure to grow two inches in three months
which is to be accounted for by the nourishment acting
now in a natural manner on the system, which before
was unduly appropriated to the support of the misused
organs.

* " We have some reason to believe that the formative
power of the tissues themselves may be diminished, so as to
check the process of nutrition, even when the plastic material
is supplied ; and a diminution of it in that irritable state of
the system which results from excessive and prolonged bodily
exertion, or anxiety of mind." Carpenter's Huma7i Physiology,

CHAPTER X.

SYSTEM OF THE LATE MR. HIINT, AND
PRACTICE OF THE AUTHOR.

There exists, perliaj^s, a well founded prejudice
against secret remedies. We may, iu the abstract,
admit that a person in full possession of a remedy-
tending to relieve any of the ills incidental to the
human frame is morallv bound to divulEre it, and to
look for a reward in his own conscience ; even although
a professional man's experience may be his stock in.
trade.

But is it not absurd to]talk of the secrcsy of a system,
which has now been in active operation for many years,
and must consequently be known to many hundreds, if
not thousands ? The secret is in the application of the
system, and not in the system itself.

Let us take a case in point, though the greatest pre-
cautions were taken to keep the construction of the
" Armstrong gun" a secret, its structure is well known-

I

130 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.*

and duly commented upon in various periodicals. The
real secret of it, however, though it may be divulged,
cannot be easily communicated, for it consists in the
employment of superior tools, in the skill of the work-
men, and in the ingenious mode of combination requisite
for a variety of purposes.

The secret of my system is experience ; it nei-
ther consists in an operation, in a charra, or a potion;
its name is legion, according to the legion of shades
which the calamity exhibits ; for there is no affection,
which is so capricious, and so much defies correct
description. I believe there is no one term which pre-
sents such extremes of differences, both in degree, and
in kind as the word stammering, used in a compre-
hensive sense. Even if there were, in this system,
an uniform system of rules, it would not be applicable
to all cases, as there are no two persons who are
physically and mentally constituted alike.

The stammer or stutter of one never exactly resem-
bles that of another. Each case has its peculiar symp-
toms and a physiognomy of its own. Simple of aj)pli-
cation as my system is in one case, it is intricate and
complicated in another. But were it even possible to
describe all the minutiae of a mode of treatment adapted
to all imaginable cases, it would be useless, if not pro-

PRACTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 131

ductive of mischief, unless the individual who applies
it has qualified himself for the task by an extended
practical experience.

All that I ever pretended to, was to have rigidly
followed in the footsteps of my late father, who, by un-
shackling himself from preconceived theories, and by
taking nature as his guide, has established the basis of
a method which has now stood the test of time, and
the soundness of which becomes more and more con-
firmed by our daily increasing knowledge of the struc-
ture and functions of the vocal and articulating
apparatus.

The eminent writer before quoted gives his valuable
opinion on this point in the following words : —

" There is no secret in Mr. Hunt's ' system,' except
in as far as all natural processes are a secret to those
who do not care to find them out. Any one who will
examine for himself how he speaks plainl)% and how his
stammering neighbour does not, may cure him, as Mr-
Hunt did, and " Conquer Nature by obeying her," but
lie will not do it. He must give a lifetime to the work,
as he must to any work which he wishes to do well.
And he had far better leave the work to the few (when
I say few, I know none but my friend. Dr. James Hunt)
who have made it their ergon and differential energy

132 yXAMMEPvIXG AXD STUTTEEI^^G.

throughout life. Still less 'svill those succeed who,.
haviiig got hold of a few of old 2slv. Hunt's rules, fancy
that they know his secret. Old 3.1r. Hunt's secret v,-as,
a shrewd English brain, backed by ball-dog English,
det 'rmination, to judge from the remarkable bust of
him which exists, and which would have made him do
many other things, had he chosen, besides curing stam-
meriug. And the man who tries to trade on his con-
clusions, vv'ithout possessing his faculty, or having
worked through his experiments, will be like hiin who
should try to operate in the hospital theatre, after cram-
ming np a book on anatomy, or throw himself into a
pond after hearing a lecture on swimming. He will
apply his rules in the wrong order, and to the wrong
cases ; he will be puzzled by a set of unexpected and
unclassified symptoms, and be infallibly v/rong in his
dia.^nosis.

" For instance, put tvro men before a second-bund pre-
tender of this kind ; one of whom (to give a common
instance) stammers from a full lung, the other fro:n an
empty one. Each requires to be started on a diircrent
method, and he will most probably (unconscious of the
difference between theai) try the same nietliod for
both ; while if the empty-lunged man have a hard,
round chest, and the full-lunged man have a soft and

PRACTICE OF THE AITTHOll. IBS'

flat one, lie will never find out whicli is which. The
matter is a study by itself; and had Dr. James Hunt,
in his book, told all he knew of the methods of cure,
lie would not have injured himself one whit — except in
as far as he might have raised up a set of quae'is whe-
ther medical or other, trading on his name, and bring-
ing him into disrepute by their failures. "•>■*

Having devoted myself to a special branch of
physiology, and witnessed the fruits of thirty yenrs'
experience in my father's and my own practice, I feel
now that it is my duty to carry out the system in a
manner which shall compass the greatest amount of prac-
tical good. As already stated, my teaching interferes
neither with th.e practice of the physician or surgeon.
I pretend to nothing more than the employment of
instruction and reason to remedy, in the vast maj ;rity
of cases, these painful impediments which constitute
not only a barrier to the common intercourse and
enjoyments of life, but to individual advancement in
any class of professional or social pursuit.

This brings me to the consideration of the benefit
that has been and may be derived from the perusal of
"books professing to lay down definite rules for the
cure of psellism, from whatever cause or causes it may
have arisen. Persons who have not duly reflected on
* Frase7''s Magazine , July, 1859.

134 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

the subject, and ignorant that psellism does not arise
from one but many causes, have felt disappointed that
I have not given minute instructions for the removal
of each individual defect.

In my Manual of the Philosophy of Voice and Speech^
and in this, and former treatises, I have given abun-
dant general rules in relation to the cultivation of the
voice and the regulation of respiratory action, the
observance of which will prevent stuttering. By study-
ing these rules, an intelligent person possessing tenacity
of purpose and self-control, may succeed in freeing
himself in certain cases from his defect. But wliere
there are severe faults of articulation, confirmed by
long habit, the mere perusal of written rules and their
application in attempts at a self-cure, will not only fail
but actually increase the disorder, rendering it more
complicated by the contraction of other bad habits.
I know from experience that the great majority of
sufferers, who have applied to me for relief, had pre-
viously read and tried the multifarious plans recom-
mended by a great variety of authors, and I had always
greater trouble in curing these, compared with sucb.
who were free from any preconceived theory. The
common saying " a man who is his own doctor has a
fool f)r his patient" applies equally to the stutterer.

PRACTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 135

Nothing is more certain than that in inveterate and
severe cases of stuttering, the patients require for a
certain period, the constant aid of an experienced
teacher, who, having traced the cause of the evil,
adapts the treatment accordingly. The main thing is
to form a correct diagnosis ; but this can only be ac-
quired by long practice. The distinctive marks are
frequently so blended that the superficial observer may
consider two cases as identical which have scarcely any
analogy to each other, and require an essentially
diiFerent treatment.

It has ever been a fundamental error to assert that
there is but one cause which produces the various
degrees of stammering and stuttering, and consequently
one remedy to be applied. The result has shown that
all systems, which have been propounded on such a
narrow basis, have been rendered comparatively use-
less. On the other hand, there is perhaps no affliction
to which the human frame is liable, which has been
attempted to be cured in so many different ways.

The famous pebbles of Demosthenes ; a bullet in the
mouth ; a roll of linen under the tongue ; the fork
of Itard ; the hride-langue of Colombat ; the whale-
bone of Malebouche ; the stick behind the back ;
intoning ; speaking through the nose ; talking with

136 STAMMERING AND STUTTEEING.

the teeth closed ; all these have been successively ad-
vised aivl applied to remedy fiiults which existed only
in the ir.ip.gination of the advisers. And if they pro-
duced any effect it consisted frequently in creating new
defects. One thing is certain, that nearly every one
of these contrivances seemed to loose its eificacy as
soon as the secret was divulged.

The following is written by one who, having tried
nearly every system in his own person, is well able to
estimate the comparative value of the general principles
upon vfhich my treatment is based : —

" The elder Hunt's ' System, ' as he called it, is a
Tery pretty instance of sound inductive method hit on
by simple patience and common sense. He first tried
to find out how people stammered ; and for this pur-
pose had to find out how people spoke plain — to com-
pare the normal with the abnormal use of the organs.
But this involved finding out what the organs used
were, a matter little understood thirty years ago ])y
scientific men, still less by Hunt, v*'ho had only a
Cambridge education, and mother wit to help him.
However, he found out ; and therewith found out, by
patient comparing of health with unliealtli, a fact
which seems to have escaped all before' him — that the
abuse neither of the ton<:rue nor anv other sin":le orii-au

PKACTiCE OF THE AUTIIOK. ioT

is tlie cause of stammering — that the whole malady is
so complicated that it is very difficult to perceive what
organs are ab;ised at any given nioiaent — quite im-
possible to discover what organ first v/ent wrong, and
set the rest wrong. For nature, in the perpetual strug-
gle to return to a goal to which she knows not the path,
is ever trying to correct oue morbid action by another ;
and to expel vice by vice ; ever trying fresh experiments
of mis-speaking, and failing, alas ! in all ; so that the
stammerer may take very diJaerent forms from year to
year ; and the boy who began to stammer with the lip
ma}^ go on to stammer with the tongue, then with the
jaw, and last, and worst of all, with the breath ; and
in after life, try to rid himself of one abuse by trying
in alternation all the other three. To these four abuses
— of the lips, of the tongue, of the jaw, and of the
breath — old Mr. Hunt reduced his puzzling mass of
morbid phenomena ; and I for one believe his division
to be sound and exhaustive. He saw, too, soon, that
stammering was no organic disease, but simply the loss
of a habit (always unconscious) of articulation ; and
his notion of his work was naturally, and without dodge
or trick, to teach the patient to speak consciously, as
other men spoke unconsciously. "••'

* Irrationale of SjJoech.

138 STAMMERING AND STUTTEKING.

Treatment.

Before determining upon the treatment to be adopted,
i make it a point to inquire whether any relatives of
the patient labour under the same infirmity, and whe-
ther he stammers in singing. After a careful exami-
nation of the buccal cavity, and inducing the patient to
move his tongue in every possible direction, I ask a
few questions, and desire him to read passages of poetry
and prose, in order to observe whether his difficulty
lies in the enunciation of the lingual, labial, or gut-
tural sounds, and also to see what mannerism or tricks
have been acquired. The motions of the lower jaw,
the elevation and depression of the larynx, the rhythm
of the respiratory organs during enunciation, and the
action of the heart, require particular attention before
w; are enabled to form a correct diagnosis. The con-
stitution, age, sex, the duration of the infirmity,
the original cause of the defect, the mental disposition
and moral habits of the patient, must all be taken
into consideration before the treatment can be decided

upon.

If no oiganic defect can be detected, it will, in most
cases, be found, that the infirmity is simply owing to the

TKACTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 139

misuse of one or more organs which are employed either
with too much force, or not used at all ; the necessary-
result of which is disharmony between vocalisation and
articulation — the chief source of stuttering. Articula
tion may be normal, and vocalisation defective, and vice
versa. To establish the requisite harmony between all
organs concerned is the object to be aimed at.

If the question be asked, how it can be ascertained
that the infirmity is not the result of defective organi-
sation, the answer is, by first inspecting the respective
organs as far as we may be able; for such an examination
mostly extends only to the organs contained in the
buccal cavity."^' But the actual proof that there exists
no organic disease, is obtained by placing the patient,
tinder certain new conditions, and observing whether his
speech becomes more free. Does the patient both
stammer and stutter? Does he stammer or stutter
while singing or reciting? Is his articulation more
distinct when reading alone, or talking to himself?

* Professor Czermack of Pesth, has recently given at Paris
some demonstrations with, his laryngo-scope, which is very
likely an improvement of a contrivance employed years ago
by Garcia. The surgeon introduces, with great care below
the uvula, a little mirror, the back of which is in contact with
the uvula, so that the larynx may be completely seen.
Whether any new light will thereby be thrown on the
action of the larynx remains to be seen.

140 sta.m:>ieuixg and stutteiiikg.

What are his most difncult letters of the alphabet?
Is the disorder intermittent or permanent ? Now
whenever we find defective utterance yielding to-
altered circumstances, Ave may fairl}' take for granted
that the structure of the organs has notliing to do
v.'ith the impediment, for actual organic disease is
known by the permanence of its symptoms, so that the
subject ought then to stammer or stutter under all
circumstances.

Psych ica I Trea tm en t.

It is admitted that the exciting cause of speech is
in the mind, so that perfect idiots are mute from the
absence of the intellectual stimulant. The mind is
thus the m.aster of speech, and through it alone can
we act on the organs necessary for the process of
articulation. When we lose our control over the
mind, v/e have none over the bodily organs under its
influence, and an improper action is the result.

Novr most of the methods recommended have that
in common, that they leave the psychical element
nearly out of sight, being almost exclusively directed
to the action of the vocal and articulating organs, and
are thus wanting one of the most important means for

PRACTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 141

ultimate success. It is impossible to lay down any
precise rules in regard to the psychical treatment of
tlie stutterer, for it is clear that it must be adapted,
not merely to the intellectual and moral capacity, but
also to the temperament of the patient. The sanguine,
the phleg-.natic. the choleric, and the nervous stutterer,
require each, the application of a different method.
Tho great object, however, in all cases is to impart to
the patient mental tranquillity and self-control. When
that is effected much has been gained, and unfil it is
attained, physical and mechanical means prove bat of
small beuefit.

In illustration of the power of tlio mind over tbe
body with regard to stuttering, not owing to organic
defects, I may state the following fi\ct from amongst
•many of a sunilar nature. One of my pupils, a talented
clergyman, before coming to me, haci occasion to
deliver a sermon — a task which, under the circum-
stances— being afflicted with a severe impediment of
speech — he would much rather have avoided. Per-
ceiving at the very outset, that the peculiarity of his
enunciation caused an unseemly merriment among
his congregation, his feelings were roused to such a
pitch, that he inwardly vowed to give them no further
cause for it, and he fully succeeded ; for he went on

142 STAMMEHING AND STUTTEHING.

with his discourse to the end without once faltering
But the excitement proved too much for him ; the
concentration of mental energy was, as usual, followed
by reaction, and he felt utterly prostrate for several
days, and stuttered fearfully until he placed himself
under my tuition. Since I have acquainted him with
the causes of his impediment, and having, by practice
brought his rebellious organs under control, he feels
not more surprised at the simplicity of the means by
which he obtained this command, than at the circum-
stance, that with all his reading and talents he did not
himself discover so obvious a remedy.

Stammerers and stutterers are frequently looked
upon as a careless, petulant, and indolent class— a set
of imbeciles — than which nothing can generally be
more erroneous. That the temper of many such
sufferers has been sour'd by continued annoyances ;
that some exhibit signs of indolence which convey the
impression of stupidity is true, but this is no more
than would occur under the same circumstances to
any other persons. Often have I found excellent
qualities of head and heart thus obscured; but the
cause being removed, and sufficient time allowed for
the sufferer to regain his bodily health and mental
vigour, he, no longer restrained by his infirmity, not

PRACTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 143

only frequently equals, but rises superior to his unfet-
tered companions. We behold him now speaking
with fluency and pleasure in society where formerly
he could not utter a sentence. I may illustrate this
by the following case —

A young gentleman, the son of a dignitary of the
Church of England, labouring under d severe impedi-
ment of speech, became a pupil of my late father.
Being of a persevering character, he not only, in due
time, conquered the impediment, but actually acquired
such a command over his organs, that he, shortly
after, carried off the prize as the best reader of his year,
as scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge.

There was, therefore, in this case (by no means an
unusual one) not only a blemish removed, but a beauty
created where previously deformity existed. This
result, though scarcely expected, is natural enough ;
for a stutterer who has gone through a systematic
course must, if perfectly cured, generally be a better
reader and speaker than are usually met with, inas-
much as the very discipline, requisite to overcome
impediments in speech, leads simultaneously to correct
reading, and fluent, and ready delivery.

It frequently happens that the cure of psellism
brings out latent capabilities, which might have

144 STAMMEKI^'G AKD STUTTEEIJTG.

remained dormant had they not been roused by the
removal of the cause which concealed them. It is
no uncommon occurrence to find a fine voice, and
many other qualifications for oratory, hidden under a
distressing delivery. Under appropriate treatment,
the enemy is not only vanquished, but his post advan-
tageously occupied ; weakness yields the place to
strength, and strength establishes the foundation of
excellence.

The ascertained cause of the impediment should be
explained to the pupil, for few, if any, stutterers are
aware of the reason vv^hy they have a difficulty of
utterance. Vocalisation and articulation are intuitively
acquired in infancy ; but the mode and the cause of
their production is unknown even to man3' adults.
* No\y it is not exactly requisite minutely to explain
to the stutterer the individual and collectivo action
of all the organs concerned. This would defeat our
very purpose ; for finding it so complicate a mechanism
it would but increase his apprehension tbat he could
ever obtain the mastery over it. But it is necessary to
point out to the patient, in the first place, the manner in
which voice is produced, and articulation effected, and
the ostensible reason why he has a difficulty in speech.
He must be made to concentrate his attention to the

PRACTICE OF THE AUTHOR. 145

main source of his impediment, whether the fault be
in the action of the respiratory, vocal, or articulating
apparatus. By these means the mind of the patient
is acted upon, scepticism and mistrust is removed,
confidence is established, and the subject is inspired
with the hope that he may ultimately recover his
fluency of speech.

CHAPTER XI.

HANAGEMENT OF STUTTERING CHILDREN, ETC..

During the reign of terror in our educational es-
tablishments, when learning and morality were beaten
into the reluctant minds of the rising generation, it was
but natural that the application of the rod was con-
sidered an effective means to cure psellism. I am
therefore not surprised to find that even the great
Joseph Frank recommends, in his Practice of Medicine^
cuffs and kicks as proper remedies in certain cases of
impediments. But though the flogging system has in
recent times lost caste, the treatment of stammering
and stuttering children is still very irrational.

Some severity may be advisable in those cases when
the infirmity is presumed to be mimicked either for fun,
or for deception. It is, however, not so easy for persons
unacquainted with the various causes and symptoms ta

MANAGEMENT OF CHILDEEN. 14T

detect the difFerence between real or pretended stam-
mering, and many children really afflicted have been
treated with great injustice on that account. A sus-
ceptible, timid child, constantly in awe of an ignorant
parent, or a brutal master, may be made to stutter by
«ruel treatment. I cannot, therefore, but fully concur ia
the following forcible remarks, merely adding that the
fundamental principle of all rational education — suaviter
in mocio, for tiler 171 re — is a fortiori applicable to the
cure of stammering.

*' And here I say boldly that the stupidity and cruelty
with which stammering children are too often treated,.
is enough to rouse indignation. They are told, " You
can help it if you like !' As if they knew how to help
it. They are asked, " Why cannot you speak like
other people ? " As if it were not torture enough ta-
see other people speaking as they cannot ; to see the
rest of the world walking smoothly along a road which
they cannot find, and are laughed at for not ^finding ;
while those who walk proudly along cannot tell them
how they keep on it. They are even told, "You do
it on purpose !' As if they were not writhing with
shame every time they open their mouths. All this
begets in the stammerer a habit of secresy, of feeling
himself cut off from his kindred ; of brooding over his

148 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

thoughts, of fancying himself under a mysterious curse,
which sometimes (as I have known it do) tempts him
to actual suicide ; sometimes (as I have known it co)
seems the possession of a demon. If it proceeded from
an organic defect, a deformity, he would know that he
could not dance. If he was blind he would not ex-
pect to see. But when he knows there is no deformity,
that his organs are just as perfect as other people's,
the very seeming causelessness of the malady makes-
it utterly intolerable."*^

Whether it be from inattention, or from inability of
distinguishing between the difficulty of enunciating
certain syllables and words in early infancy, and actual
psellism, it is certain that the first inclination to stam-
mer is little noticed, and that it is only about the
period of the second dentition that the attention of the
parents is fairly roused. The hope which many parents
entertain that the affection may spontaneously decline,
is, unless it proceeds from a transitory disorder, rarely
realised. The defect, on the contrary, commonly in-
creases with approaching puberty, and sometimes be-
comes then developed in its worst form.

Parents, therefore, cannot too often be reminded,
that the proper time for seeking the aid of an expe-

* Irrationale of Speech^

MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN. 149*

rienced practitioner is the period when the infirmity
first manifests itself, when the evil may be more easily
removed, while the cure becomes more difficult and
tedious, when indistinct articulation has become
habitual.

One of the causes of defective articulation, which
has scarcely been noticed, is the foolish manner in
which children are talked to by ignorant nurses and
fond mothers ; to which must be added the careless and
faulty manner in which they are taught to speak and
read. It is scarcely necessary to remark that parents
cannot be too careful to select nurses and teachers free
from any defect of speech.

The celebrated Dr. Priestley, who laboured under an
impediment of speech, was conscientious enough to
retire from his profession of a teacher, as he well knew
how contagious, if we may use the term, stuttering is.
In Priestley's time the nature of the infirmity was but
little understood, and he abandoned all hope of being
relieved of his impediment.

Elocution,
I do not intend entering here upon any discussion
as to the value of elocution as a branch of elementary
education. I have done so elsewhere (see Philosophj

150 STAMMEHING AND STUTTERING.

of Voice and Speech) ; but this much I may observe,
that there have been, and there are elocutionists under
-whose instructions great advantages may be acquired.
But unfortunately such men are sometimes called in to
correct inveterate errors, instead of instituting ele-
mentary principles at the outset, before the contraction
of bad habits. Elocution, as now understood, seems
only a method of varnishing the voice, and of teaching
the imitation of some particular style or rhythmical
mode of speaking and reading ; no wonder that the
study of elocution has fallen into disrepute. Properly
to develop the vocal and articulating organs, we must
be guided by some fixed principles, with which the
majority of those who teach children to read are totally
unacquainted. The same may be said of many who
style themselves elocutionists.

Relapses. The French and German commissions,
which examined the patients presented before them,
-after having undergone the treatment employed by
their respective tutors, pronounced most of them per-
fectly cured of their infirmity. Yet it is certain that
many of these, after a shorter or longer period of time,
relapsed into their old habit. The questions, therefore,
arose w^hether a radical cure be at all possible, or
whether the systems employed were in fault. Now, I

MANGEMENT OF CHILDREN. 151

will not attempt to deny that similar cases, though not
to any extent, have occurred in my own practice. But
when it is considered that the old habit, which perhaps
has existed for years, is still strong, and can, especially in
inveterate cases, be only controlled by constant attention
to the rules for harmonising the motions of the articu-
lative organs with the vocal and respiratory functions,
it is wonderful that the relapses are not more frequent.

The few — for I venture to say not one in ten of
my pupils have experienced relapses — have candidly
imputed it to their own carelessness, and not to the
system ; for what was possible once must be possible
again. In some cases circumstances prevented the
pupil from going through the whole requisite discipline.
Others, again, are too sanguine, and consider themselves
perfectly cured on having acquired a certain fluency of
utterance, while in some, the constant fear of relapsing
is the cause of its actual occurrence.

Mr. Malebouche says that his experience was, "That
those cures which are the most quickly effected are the
least durable ; " I have certainly found a tendency to
the same reeult; but by due caution, such a rule has
been by no means general.

I fully agree with Mr. Malebouche, however, vv'hen
-he says, " That it is important to concentrate the mind

152 STAMMEKING AND STUTTERING.

exclusively upon the object to be obtained by tbe-
treatment. Children, and that class of men of the world
who are accustomed to descant upon and discuss every-
thing without ever concluding upon anything, are
incapable of this concentration of the attention, and
for that reason are difficult to cure."

To effect a perfect cure, it is absolulely necessary to
appeal to the reason, and arouse the will to a vigilant
control over all the voluntary nerves and muscles.
When pupils are too indolent or too careless to exercise
this control, the cure becomes very difficult and un-
certain.

One principal reason, however, of failure, has justly
been observed by Dr. Warren, an eminent physician of
the United States, to be that teachers require too little
time ; and consequently many of the cures are not perma-
nent. A habit tliat has been confirmed by years cannot
1)6 eradicated in a very short time. This remark as to
the length of time required for the cure of children
applies still more forcibly to the case of adults. The
more confirmed the habit, the more complicated it is,
and the longer the time requisite for its eradication. In
regard to the discipline of the organs, an experienced
instructor is of the utmost importance. The advice

MANAGEMENT OF CHILDREN. 153

which Dr. Warren gives to parents is so judicious that
I cannot refrain from quoting it.

" Seek out a person who has experience in the treat-
ment of impediments of speech. Pkce him under his
care, and if he is benefited, do not remove him, and
think to perfect the cure vourseL'^. Three months is a
Tery short time for him to remain under the superinten-
dence of an instructor ; six months is better, and where
it is practicable, he should remain a year. If this inter-
feres with other studies, it is of no consequence ; he
will derive benefit enough to compensate for the loss.
The age I should fix upon for the trial should be from
eight to twelve. At this period the loss of a year's
study may be a gain. If he meets there others who
are afi"ected as he is, it is all the better ; he will no
longer look upon his case as a peculiar one ; and if he
sees others whose impediments are worse than his, it
\vill give him additional courage."

This is very true, for very sensitive pupils are apt to
doubt themselves, and fail in consequence of want of
confidence. But when they observe the successful
eflfects of the system in which they are to be instructed,
the conviction is forced upon their minds that they
need only follow the same course to reap the same
benefit.

154 STAMMERING AND STUTTERING.

Concluding Remarks,

As the subjects are frequently young persons with,
irritable nerves, or extremely shy and bashful, it is, in
most cases, requisite that they should, for a given time,
be withdrawn from certain home influences — too often
the exciting causes of psellism in its various forms.

When defective articulation is the result or the con
comitant of debility, whether congenital or acquired, a
permanent cure can in such cases be only effected by
placing the pupil under such favourable circumstances,
that whilst the organs concerned undergo the requisite
training, their healthy action may be restored and sus-
tained by the invigoration of the whole frame.

The number of apparently intractable cases, vvhick
yielded to treatment during my annual temporary so-
journ on the coast, have convinced me of the great
value of a country and marine residence as an adjuvant
in many cases, dependhig upon affections of the
vocal and respiratory apparatus. In order, there-
fore, fully to carry out my system, I have formed a
permanent establishment"^' for the treatment of defective
articulation, which enables me to afford residential
accommodation to a limited number of pupils.

* Ore House, near Hastings.

MANAGEMENT OF CHII/DKEN. 155^

The advantages offered by the locality selected,
considere^d one of the most salubrious spots in Sussex,
are sufficiently obvious. The house commands exten-
sive land and sea views ; the air is pure and bracing,
and the environs offer all requisites for health and
recreation.

Physical training, generally so much neglected, re-
ceives due attention, and all means are resorted to for
producing bodily vigour. The cultivation of the in-
tellect and the inculcation of moral habits is not less
carefully attended to.

As, independent of any impediment, many find it a
difficult task extemporaneously to address an assem-
bly, it forms a prominent feature in the plan of in-
struction to afford to the pupils constant opportunities
to read, debate, and speak on various subjects before
others, the frequent practice of which being abso-
lutely requisite to overcome the natural diffidence, and.
to restore a feeling of confidence and self-reliance.

APPENDIX A.

Abridged Notice of the Life of the late Thomas Hunt.

The late Tliomas Hunt was born in Dorsetshire, in 1802"
His progenitors and family were connected with the.
Chnrch of England, and he was educated at Winchester,
and Trinity College, Cambridge, with a view to a similar
provision in holy orders.

While at Cambridge, Mr. Hunt's attention was, by the
affliction of a fellow-student, forcibly drawn to the investi-
gation of the causes which produce stammering — a disorder
then held to be incurable. Havmg, by various successfully
treated cases, satisfied himself that he had discovered a
rational system for the cure of tliis infirmity, he left college
with the determination of devoting himseK to that pursuit,
which soon became the engrossing business of his life.

An extended provincial tour, undertaken to enlarge his
experience, only confirmed his opinion as to the real nature
of the disorder, and the most appropriate remedies for its
removal.

One of the earliest proofs of his provincial success, is
vouched for by Sir John Forbes.

*'Mr. Hunt was kind enough to give a lesson in my
presence to Thomas Miles (a patient in the Chichester
Infirmary), a poor man who has been affected with stammer-

158 APPENDIX.

ing, in a very high degree, from his infancy. And from the
unreserved exposition of his principles on that occasion, as
well as from the remarkaWe improvement (amounting almost
to a complete cure) produced by this single lesson, I am of
opinion that Mr. Hunt's method will be successful in nearly
every case of stammering not depending on any organic
defect, provided the requisite degree of attention is paid by
the pupil."

John Forbes, M.D."
" Chichester, April 12, 1828."

Thus fortified by the happy results of his labours in all
parts of the country, Mr. Hunt finally resolved to settle in
the metropolis, where at first he experienced, to the full, all
the difficulties which usually attend the estabhshment of a
new theory. In spite of all obstacles, however, Mr. Hunt's
system gradually rose in public estimation, and the evidence
of its merits became too convincing to be withstood. The
greatest surgeon of the day, the late Mr. Kobert Liston,
stepped before the public, and not only raised his voice
against any further mutilations, but evinced his admiratioir
of the simplicity and efficacy of Mr. Hunt's system, by re-
commending to medical and other students to avail them-
selves of Mr. Hunt's tuition. Those only who know how
scrupulously chary that eminent surgeon was to give the
sanction of his name to aught, either professional or general,
which he could not conscientiously approve, can estimate
the paramomit importance of such aid.

*' I have, with much pleasure, witnessed Mr. Hunt's
process for the removal of stammering. It is founded on
correct physiological principles, is simple, efficacious, and
unattended by pain or inconvenience. Several young
persons have, in my presence, been brought to him for the

APPENDIX. 159

first time ; some of them could not utter a sentence, how^
ever short, without hesitation and frightful contortion of
the features. In less than half an hour, by following Mr.
Hunt's instructions, they have been able to speak and to
read continuously, long passages without difl&culty. Some
of these individuals had previously been subjected to painful
and unwarrantable incisions, and had been left with their
palates horribly mutilated, hesitating in their speech, and
stuttering as before."

" Egbert Liston."
" 5, Clifford Street, March 1, 1842."

About this time it curiously happened that Francis, when
he shot at Her Majesty, was witnessed by Pearson, and had
he been able to give the alarm, the danger might have been
averted.

The Times, of June 25, 1842, remarks, " It will be re-
collected that a lad, named Pearson, one of the persons who
-witnessed the treasonable attempt upon the Queen's life on
the Sunday afternoon, was afflicted with so inveterate a
habit of stammering as to be unable even to give an alarm.
He has, we are informed, by means of a new process of cure,
obtained the power of perfect articulation ; the hesitation,
■which before rendered him scarcely intelligible, even when
not excited, having entirely disappeared."

So completely does the valued opinion of Kobert Cham-
bers,* represent the facts of the case, that I quote the
greater portion of this article.

" I have been taken by a friend to see stammering cured
by Mr. Hunt. Though a matter in which a patrimonial
interest is concerned, I feel tempted, by the interesting
nature of what I saw, to make public allusion to Mr. Hunt's

* Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, April 10, 1847.

160 APPENDIX.

system. Two young men were in attendance, "botli grievously-
afflicted with stammering, and both new cases. One was
asked to sit down, and Mr. Hunt then addressed a few
questions to him, on which he made the usual wretched
attempts to answer. This young man had no recollection of
ever speaking fluently. His attempts to read were equally
miserable failures. Mr. Hunt then explained to him, in
simple terms, the physiological and moral causes of staimner-
ing, and gave him a few very intelligible directions for
the regulation- of the mouth, tongue, respiration, and the
part of the chest to speak from. The youth was soon able
to pronounce sentences, and also to read with considerable
readiness. The other youth was then put through a similar
series of lessons, and in an equally short time the compara-
tively perfect use of the organs was attained in his case.
On a subsequent visit, I saw a girl who stammered and
hesitated in an extraordinary manner, restored to a common
style of speech in less than twenty minutes. These, how-
ever, are not cures. A complete victory over the bad habit
can only be the work of time. There is no mystery what-
ever in the plan. It is merely replacing nature upon her
pivot, from which accident or bad habit had thrown her.
What the instructor does is but a small part of the cure.
The greater part is the work of the pupil, fully obeying the
rules, and persevering in them, till a new habit has been
acquired. Most persons, I conceive, would not be safe from
a relapse under carelessness for many months, and indi-
viduals of weak will might fail altogether.

* * * *

" The exhibition is a most interesting one, creating that
peculiar satisfactory feeling which we experience when the
triumph of nature over error is asserted. Yet, as if to make
good the rule that all benefits to humanity must come

MEMOIK. 161

•througli the sufferings of individuals, Mr. Hunt has been
subjec'ed to persecution on account of his practice. It was
discovered that stammering ought to be regarded as a
disease, and therefore treated only by qualified medical
men ; on this ground Mr, Hunt was publicly denounced as
a quack. It would be as reasonable to demand that a
dancing-master, who substitutes graceful for av/kward walk-
ing, or an elocutionist, who extirpates patois from the tones
of the voice, should have a medical diploma. A beautiful
thing it would be, indeed, for the resolver of this difficulty
to go to a faculty altogether ignorant of the subject, aud
study their mysteries, which have nothing to do with it,
and niue-tenths of which are now under a strong suspicion
of being mere delusion, before he could be allowed to make
use of an invention of his own, the benefits of which are
palpable."

The following is from the pen of a writer of high reputa-
tion, viz : — Mr. John Forster, of the Exainiaer, the well
Icnown biographer, of Goldsmith.*

" A prospectus is before us, issued by Mr. Hunt, on the
subject of impediments of speech, and the possibility of their-
-easy and certain removal, without any kind of siu-gical in-
tervention, which we think of sufficient interest to bring
binder notice in this place. Struck by the announcement,
and by a remark of the late Mr. Liston, among the testi-
monials quoted, we have sought and obtained an opportunity
of witnessing the process adopted by Mr. Hunt. We have
110 hesitation in expressing a most favourable opinion of Mr.
Hunt's process. Based upon clear and intelligible principles
it has the merit of singular simplicity. Mr. Hunt explain
to his pupils the anatomical o-initraction of the organs by

* From the Examiner, of March 2, 1830.

162 APPENDIX A.

which the voice is produced, points out the different causes
■of stuttering, and teaches how an easy utterance may "be
obtained by removal of the cause that obstructs it in the
particular case. There is nothing difficult to understand, or
that the least intelligent may not readily seize, and instantly
act upon. When we can discover what has induced a habit
contrary to nature, we are surprised to see how easily nature
xesuines what she might seem so completely to have lost.
Whether or not she may be able to keep it depends on other
considerations. In the case we had the pleasure to see tried,
a young man, whose unavailing attempts to read a line of
verse had been quite frightful to witness, was enabled by
something less than an hours instruction, to read the whole
of * Gray's Elegy ' with tolerable ease. Nor had we the least
■doubt that perseverance in the instructions given would
-eventually make the cure complete. But that this perseve-
rance would be necessary, even to the point of incessant and
uninterrupted practice for a very considerable time, we
thought not less clear. Ha*bit must be conquered by habit.
With this proviso of hearty and laborious co-operation on the
sufferer's own side, we believe that a very ingenious and,
intellient gentleman has really discovered an efficacious cure
for a most distressing defect, and we are happy to take
this o]3portunity of saying so."

The number of pupils whom my father had relieved at last
became very numerous, and many were anxious to express
their gratitude to the benefactor who had rescued them from
what must always have been a barrier to their success in.
life. From various notices which appeared at the time, the
following is extracted from the Literary Gazette^ February
24, 1849.

*' The cure of stammering by Mr. Hunt has so often com-
manded our special consideration, that we are gratified to

3IEM0IR. 163^

find the success of his simple and efficacious system (ahnost
without a failure, as we have witnessed for a number of
years) is in the course of being marked by a public testimo-
nial from a grateful band of the pupils he has taught to
relieve themselves from these painful embarrassments, and
enabled to take very different position in life from those
which such impediments imposed."

This gratifying tribute is an excellent likeness, and affec-
tionately prized by his family and friends, and is a lasting
memorial of his services to his fellow creatures. It is thus
recorded in the Catalogue of the Exhihition of the Royal
Academy for 1849.

" No. 1336. Marble bust of Thomas Hunt, Esq., author
of the system for the Cure of Stammering. Subscribed for,
and presented to him, by his pupils, in testimony of his
services during a period of twenty-two years.

" Joseph Durham."

Ardently pursuing his task, !Mr. Hunt, at the close of his
London sojourn, in 1851, left for Dorsetshire, when
alas ! in the midst of health and joyous expectations, the
strong man was struck down, and suddenly removed from
his sphere of usefulness, as is recorded in the subjoined
obituary.

*' Obituary of Eminent Persons," in the Illustrated London
News, August 23, 1851.

" Thomas Hunt. — After one week of severe illness, died
at Godlingstone, near Swanage, on Monday last, the 18th
inst., Thomas Hunt, Esq., so long and so justly held in high
esteem for his skill in the cure of stammering. During
some twenty-five years of Mr. Hunt's practice, a great
number have been benefited by his care, and very many

164 APPENDIX A.

have to be grateful to him for rescuing tlieii:i, not only
from the mortification and distress of a painfnl disorder (for
sucli it is), but for rendering them eligible to undertake
hig])er stations in trade, the army and navy, all the liberal
professions, and even in the legislature. His system v/as
simply to teach the sufferers, by the plainest common-sense
direction, the means of restoring nature to its functions.
M'hich Avere perverted and counteracted by evil habits, or
the curious infection of involuntary imitation. Mr. Hunt
held, and truly held, that not one case in fifty was the con-
sequence of deficient or mal-organization ; and he sternly
and perseveringly eschewed tlie knife. In many cases the
effect of a single lesson was so remarkable as to appear like
magic, converting the convulsive stutterer from distressing
tinintelligibility into freedom of voice, distinctness of utter-
ance, and correctness of pronunciation. Tlie pupils and the
wdtnesses of such an hours' change were alike astonished by
the obvious process, which only required a degree of mode-
rate attention to confirm for ever.

*' Mr. Hunt vras of a good Dorsetshire family, many of
whom were connected Avith the Church. He was educated
ftt Cambridge, but circun^.stances led to his choice of farming
instead of taking degrees. His devotedness to his one great
pursuit did not prevent him from cultivating, as a distin-
guished agriculturist, a large farm in Dorsetshire, where he
was as much respected in that sphere as he was generally
esteemed for his peculiar talent in v/hat may bo termed
j)rofessional life. A widow and fcvmily of eight children are
left to lament his loss."

An extract fr.m the speech of the Right Hon. the Earl
of C;rliile, 1'I.Gt., at the General i\nniversary Meeting of
the riuyal Society of Literature, 1852, also records the sam«.

anelancholy event.

MEMO I';. IT) 5

"•"The Society," said liis LorJslii}-, ihc president, '' lias lost
^luring the year, Mr. Thomas IltHit, who, e liicated at Ciim-
bridge, and intended for the Church, found himself com-
pelled to devote the energies of his whole life, it' not to a
very aspiring, at least to a most considerate aim of benevo-
lence— the relief of the distress occasioned by stannueriug.
1 learn, from authority of high professional eminence, as
well as from the attachment of his personal friends, that his
mode of treatment was attended with the most distinguished
success, and that to the poor especially he was signally
liberal and kind as an instructor."

Mr. Hunt's death appeared to be the signal for the revival
of competition in the walk he had occupied, to the exclusioa
of the advocates for surgical operations and pretenders. The
notorious and the obscure rushed forvrard, and anonymous
books, pamphlets, and advertisements ajDpealed to the public,
with every assertion of infallibility. The public was thus
speedily besieged by a corps of resolute curers of stammering,
■widely differing from each other as to the nature of the
affection. But if there be v.-isdom in the multiplicity of
judges, there is distraction in the nmltiplieity of counsellors.
Some, mere teachers of languages, fancied themselves able
10 coj.e v/ith the sometimes intricate causes which produce
ihii: alleotion ; others not nearly so qualified were still more
Irretentions.

" On his death a host of pretenders^ sprang up, all, of
■course, professing his system ; and all, as far as I have ever
heard (an 1 Heaven knows I have had cause to hear CDough),
lailing, and ducking under again into their native mud.

" One man, a Weslej^an deacon, or some such functionaiy,
used old Jtlr. Hunt's testimonials, boldly announced himself
his successor, and received, without a word of explanation,
inquirers and pupils who came to seek him.

166 APPENDIX A.

"This was a 'pretty sharp state of business,' as our
transatlantic brethren say ; and one is puzzled to guess
-whether (and if so in what terms) he related his ' experi-
ences and exercises ' on the subject to his class leaders or
other father- confessors. But probably he had arrived at
that state of sinless perfection, boasted of by some of his
sect, in which such legal and carnal distinctions as honesty
and dishonesty vanish before the spiritual illuminations of
the utterly renewed man. Whether he practises now or
not, I neither know nor care. I suppose he has gone the
way of other pretenders."*

*Fraser*s Magazine, July, 1859.

APPENDIX B.

Hints to Stammerers.*

The following advice to stutterers and stammerers is so
-valuable that I have thought it advisable to print the extract
entire,

'•'• And now one word as to Dr. Hunt, son of the Avorthy
old Dorsetshire gentleman, the author of the book mentioned
at the liead of this article. I could say very much in his
praise w^iich he would not care to have said, or the readers
of Fraser to hear. But as to his power of curing the average
of stammerers, I can and do say this — that 1 never have yet
seen him fail where as much attention was given as a school-
"boy gives to his lessons. Of course the very condition
of the cure — the conscious use of the organs of speech —
makes it depend on the power of self -observation, on the
attention, on the determination, on the general intellectual
power, in fact, of the patient ; and a stupid or volatile lad
will give weary work. Yet I never have seen even such
go away unrelieved. For nature, plastic and kind, slips
i^illingly into the new and yet original groove, and becomes
■what she was meant all along to be ; and though to be con-
scious of the cause of every articulate sound which is made,

* Extracted from an article entitled *' The Irrationale of
Speech, by a Minute Philosopher, C.K." being a review of
the author's work, " A Manual of the Philosophy of Voice-
and Speech," and "The Unspeakable, or Life and Adventures-
of a Stammerer," See Fraser' s Magazine^ for July, 1859.

168 APPENDIX B.

■even in a short sentence, is a physical impossibility, yet a
general watchfulness and attention to certain broad rules
■enable her, as she always is inclined to do, to do right on the
whole. For after all, right is pleasanter than wrong, and
health more natural than disease ; and the proper use of
iiny organ, when once the habit is established, being in
liarmony with that of all other organs, and with the whole
universe itself, slips on noiselessly, it knows not how, and
the old bad habit of years dies out in a month, like the tricks
which a child learns one day to forget the next."

" But, over and above what Mr. Hunt or any other man.
can teach ; stammerers, and those who have been stam-
merers need above all men to keep up that mentem sanam m
corpore sa7w, ^vhich is now-a-days called somewhat offen-
sively, muscular Christianity — a term worthy of a puling-
and enervated generation of thinkers, who prove their own
imhealthiness by their contemptuous surprise at any praise
of that health which ought to be the normal condition of
the whole human race."

"But whosoever can afford an enervated body and an abject
character, the stammerer cannot. With him it is a questioa
of life and death. He must make a man of himself, or bd
liable to his tormentor to the last."

"Let him, therefore, eschew all base perturbations of mind ;
all cowardice, servility, meanness, vanity, and hankering after
admiration ; for these all will make many a man, by a just
judgment, stammer on the spot. Let him, for the same
reason, eschew all anger, peevishness, haste, even pardonable
eagerness. In a word, let him eschew the root of all evil,
selfishness and self-seeking ; for he will surely find that
Avhensoever he begins thinking about himself, then is the
dumb devil of stammering at his elbow. Let him eschew,
too, all superstition, whether of that abject kind ^vhiclL

HINTS TO STAMMEKEKS. 169

fancies that it can please God by a starved body and a
hang-do«: visage, which pretends to be afraid to look man-
kind in the face, or of that more openly self-couceited kind
whicli upsets the balance of the reason by hysterical raptureri
and self -glorifying assumptions. Let him eschew lastly, all
which can weaken either nerves of digestion ; all sexual:
excesvses, all intemperance in drink or in food, whether gross
or efienainate, remembering that it is as easy to be uuwhole-
someiy gluttonous over hot slops and cold ices as over beef
and beer."

*' Let him avoid those same hot slops (to go on with the
corpus sanum), and all else which will injure his wind and.
his digestion, and let him betake himself to all manly exer-
cises v/hich will put him into wind, and keep him in it. Let
him, if he can, ride, and ride hard, remembering that (so
does horse exercise expand the lungs and oxygenate the blood)
there has been at least one frightful stammerer ere novr
who spoke perfectly plainly as long as he was in the saddle.
Let him play rackets and fives, row, and box ; fur all these
amusements strengthen those muscles of the chest and.
abdomen which are certain to be in his case weak. Above
all, let him box ; for so will ' the noble art of self-defence ;
become to him over and above a healing art. If he doubt
this assertion, let him (or, indeed, any narrow-chested porer
over deiks) hit out right and left for five minutes at a point
on the wall as high as his o^vn face (hitting, of course, not
from the elbow, like a woman, but frourthe loin, like a man,
and keeping his breath during the exercise as long as he
can), and he will soon become aware of his weak point by a
severe pain in the epigastric region, in the same spot
which pains liim after a convulsion of staunnering. Then.
let him try boxing regidarly, daily ; and he will find that it
teaches him to look a man not merely in the face, but in the

170 APPENDIX B.

Tery eye's core ; to keep his chest expanded, his lungs full"'
of air ; to be calm and steady under excitement ; and lastly,
to use all those muscles of the torso on which deep and
iealthy respiration depends. And let him, now in these
Tery days, join a rifle-club, and learn in it to carry himself
with the erect and noble port which is all but peculiar to
tbe soldier, but ought to be the common habit of every man ;
let him learn to march ; and more, to trot under arms with-
out losing breath ; and by such means make himself aa
active, healthy, and valiant man."

"Meanwhile, let him learn again the art of speaking ; and
laving learnt, think before he speaks, and say his say calmly,
with self-respect, as a mnn who does not talk at random,
and has a right to a courteous answer. Let him fix in his
mind that there is nothing on earth to be ashamed of, save
doing wrong, and no being to be feared save Almighty God ;
and so go on making the best of the body and the soul
which Heaven has given him, and I will warrant that in a
few months his old misery of stammering will lie behind
Lim, as an ugly and all but impossible dream when one
awakes in the morning."

APPENDIX C.

The publishing of testimonials has always been a questlo
vexata. That it is extensively abused in every branch of
enterprise, and is equally the resort of truth and honesty,
and of falsehood and fr^^ud, is undeniable ; but the apology,
if any be necessary, is the great difficulty of obtaining, by
other means, a public hearing of any new discovery, so as to
entitle it to public consideration. This mode of producing
prima facie evidence in favour of any new theory, is especi-
ally requisite in cases, when the discoverer has left the beaten
track, and having struck out a path for himself, comes into
collision with '' vested interests," and is consequently at-
tacked and obstructed in his onward march by interested
parties. To confound the obstructors, he is compelled, in
self-defence, to vindicate his theory by shov.'ing the results
obtained. Little or no importance is to be attached to
anonymous testimonials, when, however, the most eminent
medical practitioners, like professors Liston, Fergusson, and
Forbes, andliterary characters like Kingsley, Robert Cham-
bers, John Forster, and many others, disregarding the odium
they may incur, bear public witnesses to the simplicity and
efficacy of the system I pursue, I submit that the evidence
produced is sufficiently strong to entitle me to public con-
fidence. It is with this view— -bearing in mind the adage,
testimonia ponderanda sunt^ nan nwneranda — that the fol-
lowing testimonials, selected from a host of siuailar ones in.
my possession, are submitted to the public.

TESTIMONIALS. 173

TESTIMONIALS.

The first letter is from a gentleman so well known and
iippreciated by the public generally, that I need only men-
tion that it is from the pen of the author of Yeasty Alton
LocJce, Ilypatia^ Westward IIo ! Glaucus, Two Years Ago,
&c., &:c., and I am convinced it must carry that \\ eight
which it deserves. Such a testimony is ia itself surely sufh-
dent to remove all scepticism ; and suiferers who disbelieve
in the cure, will owe much to such an authority for removing
their doubts and misgivings on the subject.

" Eversley Rectory, March, 1856.

" IMy dear sir, — I have Avaited till I had something worth
saying before I wrote to you. At first I had various small
relapses and failures, which put me out of heart : but I must
tell you now that all my friends are quite surj^rised and de-
lighted with the change in my speech. I have gone through
many trying evenings vfithout stanunering a word ; and even-
when, coming home tired and excited, I broke down a little,
I have alvrays been able to recover myself before any spasm
came on. If I fail now, it will be only from my own neg-
lect of your simple lules, for which I thank you with all my
heart.

"Three things gave me confidence in you at our first
interview : — First, I saw that you really understood the
mental excitants of the disease. Secondly, that you did not
(as an empirick would) take for granted the symptoms which
the disease had produced, but knew them to be various and
ever varying, even in the same patient ; and therefore care-
fully examined till you had found out which of the vocal
(.•rgans was chiefly affected. Thirdly, that you had no
panacea, Irick, or " dodge " to offer me ; (had you done so,

174 APPENDIX C.

I could not have had confidence in you,) but that your aim
was to restore me to a conscious use of the vocal organs, ex-
actly similar to that which the healthy subject employs un-
consciously ; and so to deliver me from those half-conscious
tricks which the stammerer employs as remedies for his com-
plaint : and which (as my experience has taught me) are
equally useless and unwholesome. ' To return to nature
through art,' seems to be your notion of your work : if so,
you must be right and successful also, for it is the great law
and aim of aU worthy work in this world.

" * * * * has given up all his prospects, and
gone to Australia, simply on account of his stammering.
This had happened while I was in town with you. Had I
known you three months before, he might have been saved ;
and I dare say his story is that of many. I assure you what
you have done for me already has been much talked of ; and
that many have promised me to get you pupils.

" 1 must not iorget to say that, thanks to you^ I have been,
preaching and lecturing extempore, not only without stam-
mering, but with an ease I never felt before.

" Believe me, yours most truly grateful,
'*' James Hunt, Esq., &c. " C. Kingsley."

"Newton Toney, near Warminster,
" March 26th. 1857.

" My dear sir, — It is with great pleasure that I send you
my testimony of the success of your system for the cure of
stammering as instanced in the case of my son.

*'I am glad to say that he continues to speak and read
without hesitation, and I have every reason to hope that his
cure will be quite permanent, as it is now six months since
he was under your care.

*' I have made your successful treatment known to many

TESTIMONIALS. 175

of my friends, and shall continue to use my influence with,
all uhoni I know, that have stammering children.

" I beg that you will use my name whenever you wish.
" I am, dear sir, yours truly,

" Mary Anne Kendle."
" To Dr. James Hunt."

The following letter is kindly allowed publicity by the

writer : —

*' Chatham House, Brixton Hill,

" September 1st, 1856.

" My dear madam, — In reply to your inquiries respecting
Mr. Hunt's treatment for the cure of stammering, I consider
that with regard to my daughter's case, he has been com-
pletely successful. His mode of treatment, of course must
vary occasionally, according to the degree of the pupil's de-
fect in speech — also the time requisite for effecting the com-
plete cure. I consider his plan of treatment to be founded
upon the most judicious and scientific principles ; and by no
means disagreeable to the pupils themselves — to whom he is
always most kind and considerate, in every way, making al
allowance for the nervousness, &c., which generally attends
impediments in the speech.

*' I was perfectly satisfied with all the domestic arrange-
ments superintended by Mrs. Hunt, who is most kind and
attentive — and I am quite sure that your daughter would
be perfectly happy and comfortable with her, as mine was
in every respect.

" I have very great pleasure in forwarding this testimonia.
to you, as I feel that I cannot say too much of Mr. Hunt for
his kind and judicious treatment of my daughter, whose case
was of long standing, and difficult to overcome.
" I remain, my dear madam,

" Yours obediently,

*' Sophia Z. Morris.'*

176 APPENDIX C.

Extract from a letter from Mns. Simmons, 46, Neiv King
Street^ Bath^ to the Author^ Dated Septcmher 4, 1853.

*'AVhen I saw my son, I Avas the most astonislied at the
great ease and iluency he had acquired, and that too, in so
short a time, as from the age of four or five years, he had
stammered to a most painful degree. Yonr mode of treat-
ment has had a most wonderful effect in removing this great-
hindrance to his future success in life. I shall always feel
a great pleasure in answering any inquiries respecting your
skill, or kindness of treatment, and pray make whatever use
of my name you think proper."

" 23, Fenchurch Street, May 3, 1856.
*' Dear sir, — It gives me great pleasure to bear testimony^
to your success in relieving ray son from the very painful im-
pediment in his speech, which had been a growing trouble to
him up to the time of his first introduction to you in the
autumn of last year. He then spoke with much difficulty ;
and some words he could scarcely say at all.

'' I may confidently say the cure has been perfect on your
part. I feel very thankful that I was induced, by two emi-
nent medical gentlemen, to consult you, and place the case
in your hands ; and that the result has been so beneficial to
mj son, and satisfactory to us all.

"Believe me, dear sir, yours very faithfully,

" Charles Moss.""
*' James Hunt, Esq."

The following letter, in answer to some inquiries, is kindly
Allowed publicity by the writer :

" 104, Edgeware Koad, Paddiugton, (W.^
" April 15, 1856.
" Dear Sir, — My nephew was under Mr. Hunt's care more
than three years since ; and although only with him a few

TESTIMONIALS. 177

•weeks, he returned home speaking as fluently as any boy of
his age. He was then about ten years old, and had stut-
tered to a painful degree from his infancy, which produced
great contortions of the face, and an entire motion of the
muscles of the whole body.

" I am happy to say he continues to speak and read as well
as on the day he left.

" If your son stammers badly, I believe I\Ir. Hunt will
consider it necessary that he should reside with him, when
the cure is effected in a shorter time, and rendered more
certain and permanent. I believe Mr. Hunt considers the
earher (after the pupil is able to read) the case is placed
under his care, the more easy and certain is the result. You
may rely on every domestic attention being given both by
Mr. andlNIrs. Hunt.

••' I always feel a pleasure in answering any inquiries on
the subject ; and I am convinced you will be grateful to all
who have induced you to procure his assistance and success-
ful practice, which is worthy the admiration of all, and not
to be confounded with the ' quack statements ' so often forced
on the notice of the public.

" I remain, dear sir, yours very truly,

*' To H. F." " D. Sydenham."

" 4, Halkin Street West, Belgrave Square, S.W.
"March 21, 1857.

"Dear sir, — When I first applied to you, it was with a
very distant hope, indeed, that you could possibly cure me
of a defect, which I had inseparably bound up with my ner-
vous system : that I applied to you at all, was the result of
reading your very admirable treatise, which satisfied me that
if any man living understood the stammerer's very peculiar
and artificial state of mind, — that man was yourself.

" The weighty evidence afforded by every page of the trea-

M

178 APPENDIX C.

tise that actual experience and not mere theory had dictated
the language, encouraged me not only to put myself under your
tuition, but at the same time to invest a considerable quan-
tity af f .\itli ill tlie result.

*' I have very great pleasure in testifying that that invest-
snent has returned me good interest in two ways — first, prac-
tically, in putting into my hands a clue to the labyrinth in.
which for years I had lost myself in exploring ; and secondly,
n placing before me in a simple and clear manner, the nature
of articulation, and the principles necessary to be employed
to produce voice ; and you very satisfactorily demonstrated,
that the vast amount of time and labour I had expended in
endeavouring to master my defect, by acquiring a fancied
mechanical expertness in utterance, failed at the most critical
times ; simply from my ignorance of the very first conditions
of the science, so that by this very practice — for which you
•will remember I assumed some credit — T had actually been,
confirming myself in a bad system.

" Strange to say from once regarding stammering as a
great calamity, I am now begiuning to look upon it as a real
blessing ; it has led me to aim at being a correct speaker,
without such a stimulant, I should have been all my life what
most people are, careless and slovenly in articulation.

" In conclusion I will just add what occurred to me very
frequently of late — vk., that to all who speak in public I ani
• convinced your instructions would be of little less value than
to the actual stammerer, and although " mumbling clergy-
men " of the class so graphically described in the Times the
other day by " Habitans in Sicco " are rare, yet few can be
aware how much more powerful and sustained their voices
would be, were they to put into practice the principles yea

teach.

*' I am, dear sir, yours faithfully,

*' Joseph W. Blake."

TESTIMOJiTIALS. 179

" Cork, 70, South ^lall,

" April 24, 1857.
" My dear sir, — For the last ten years one of the chief
purposes of my life "vva,s to overcome a severe imp aliment in
my speech, I have spent months and many hundreds of
pounds in this attempt. I have been under the care of nearly
every person who professed to cure such affections in Dublin,
London, and Paris. So that I believe I have as much ex-
perience in this matter as any one in these kingdoms.

" The result of this experience is a clear conviction that
you practice the true art of cure. / consider other systems
valuable only in so far as they approximate yours, and dele-
terious inasmuch as they differ from it. And I earnestly and
deliberately recommend all fellow-sufferers to place them-
selves under your care.

" I am, my dear sir, yours very truly,

" John George Mac Carthy.'*
" James Hunt, Esq., Ph. D.," &c.

The foregoing testimonials were inserted in the third
edition of my former work. It is with sincere regret I have
to omit the testimonials of two clergymen, whose sons have
been snatched away from this world Avhen they ^vere just
beginning a noble career. They had shown their strength
of mind in conquering their stuttering : and the country
has to deplore no tw^o more promising youths than Frederick
Dusantoy and George Hamilton.

The following are selected from amongst the most recent
testimonies of the value of my services, which I have had the
pleasure of receiving : —

" Old] Anchor House, Carmarthera,
"July 18th, 1860.

" My dear sir,— Since Ileft you, I have been gradually

ISO APPENDIX C.

getting better, and if I stutter occasionally, it arises from
the want of strict attention to your simple rules. I have
spoken in public under some very trying circumstances
without any impediment. I must mention one instance :
I was excited so much in addressing the audience,
that I felt almost too weak to stand, my heart throbbing
so strongly that I think it could have been heard half a
■dozen yards off. But such is the command I have obtained
over my vocal organs that even on this trying occasion I
spoke without the slightest stuttering. My voice is also
greatly improved, having acquired a fulness and compass
which I did not hope for.

" My friends and acquaintances are astonished at the ease
and fluency with which I now speak, and testify that they
never witnessed so complete a cure.

" I feel as if moving in a new world, the great barrier to
my success in life having been removed. This gives me new
strength and courage to pursue my plans with diligence and
perseverance. Words can never express my gratitude for
the kind and simple manner which you have reheved me of
a most distressing affliction.

" I should like your system to be universally known, and
I promise to do all I can to make the world understand the
"wonderful cures it has wrought.

" I remain, dear sir, yours truly,

*' Wm. Lewis."
" Dr. James Hunt."

" 17, Westbourne Square,

" October 20th, 1860.

"My dear sir, — Before I had the pleasure of knowing
you I was, at times, utterly unable to articulate words com-
mencing with certain consonants, and consequently, reduced
to the necessity of mentally changing the expression I
wished to use.

TESTIMONIALS. 181

" The absorbing nature of my profession lias not permitted
me fully to carry out all the directions you have given me
for the full development of, and proper control over the
vocal organs, but I find that proper attention to the rules
you] have given me, enables me to pronounce any word
whenever required.

" I have only to add, that I think your excellent system
worthy the attention of all who value clear articulation.
*' Believe me, my dear sir, yours sincerely,
" E. Aguilar."
"Dr. James Hunt, F.S.A., F.R.S.L."

*' 23, Redcross Street,

"Novembers, 1860.

" Dear sir, — It is with feelings of the deepest gratitude I
write these few lines. About two years ago I came to yoa
a very bad stammerer, as bad a case, perhaps, that has comp
under your notice.

" The first two days I was with you I could not speak one
word, not even my own name.

"But now, after having practised your excellent rules, and
resided with you at Hastings for a short time, and having
had your sound advice on the subject, I have mastered my
defect, and have great pleasure to say, I can now speak
jind read with great satisfaction to myself and to my friends,

" I cannot conclude without expressing my thanks for
the great kindness I received both from you and Mrs. Hunt,
when at Hastings.

" jNIake use of my name in any way you think proper, as
I shall be most happy to answer any inquiries respecting
your skill or kindness of treatment. Hoping you will
always prosper,

" I remain, your grateful Pupil,

" F. W. Gray."
*' P.S. — I am just eighteen years of age."

182 APPENDIX C.

" AVadliam College, Oxford,
" October 31st, 1860.

" My dear Dr. Hunt, — It is with much pleasure that I
send you the results of my own experience of the value of
your system. When I first came to you, nearly three years
ago, I was much annoyed by stammering, and very sensitive
about it. Although mine was not a severe case, it was quite
bad enough, and I could not see my way out of it at all.
And so my relief was very great, when, after a very short
interval, I found that the rules and help which you gave me,
so far put the clue into my hands that from that time, and
ever since, I have felt convinced that it would be entirely
my own fault if the cure was not permanently completed.

" In my opinion, a principal advantage in your system is,
that it puts his cure so entirely within the povrer of the
j)U25il, that his own will can alv/ays determine the conditions
of success. To me this has constituted its chief charm, for
it produces in this respect, a feeling of self-reliance, that
could not be enjoyed if the completion of cure, or recovery
in cases of relapse, by any means necessarily depended on
your own extern d assistance. The first and happiest effect
produced by your treatment, is a pleasing consciousness of
being no longer the slave, but the master of one's annoyance,
stammer as one may.

" And that this has been my happy experience, I can most
unhesitatingly assert. To all those who most prize success
when it has been attained by persevering exertion, your
system must have peculiar attractions, for in it, as every-
where, ' Amat victoria curam.'

" Wishing you all the success that you have placed within
the reach of myself and so many others,
" I am, always, dear Dr. Hunt,

" Yours gratefully and affectionately,

" Arthur H. Haringtox."

*'Dr. James Hunt."

THE END.

BY THE SAME AUTHOE,

RecenUu PahUslied^ Crown 8i-o., pp. 422, Price 7s. 6d,

A MANUAL OF THE PHILOSOPHY

OF

TOICE AND SPEECH

APPLIED TO THE AKT OF PUBLIC SPEAKING.

London, Longman and Co., or tost free from the Autiiok,
Ore House, near Hastings.

OPINIONS OF THE PKESS.

From the Spectator. i

" Mr. Hunt has introduced the re- ;
suits of his own cousideration of the i
questions, espe ially iu reference to
his professional experience. * * I
* A vast repertory of facts and
opinions relating to the physical
organs of utterance, and of utter-
ance itself, from the lower animantia
to man, and of the various questions j
connected with voice and language, i
These facts, too, are curious and
useful."

From the Obsekver.
"The volume is learned, and at
the same time instru tive and amus-
ing ; and as a work which has no
parallel in the English language, as
•well as a work of great value, it can
lie safely recommended to public
notice."

From the New^s of the World.
*'This is the most comprehensive,
philosophical, and practical book we
have met with upon a subject deeply
interesting to many thousands of
the British public. The collection

of materials for its developraent^.
under all its variety of heads, must
have been the labour of many years^
and the lucid arrangement of them
cannot be praised too highly. We-
have now, for the iirst time, ihe phi-
losophy of voice and speech ex-
plained thoroughly, intelligently,,
and plainly. The nervous system^
the organ : of hearing, the vocal ap-
paratus, and the manner in which
the voice is produced, form the
topics of several chapters, vvhereiu
a fund of useful knowledge is deve-
loped, and suggestions are made of
practical utility. The disorders of
the voice and defective articulation
also receive attention, and are verysai is-
factorily treated. Considerable space-
is given to public speaking, and the
rules for success therein, a topic
which may be studied with advan-
tage, not only by those who aim at
public displays, but by those who
would arrive at a good style of elo-
cution in domestic life. Dr. Hunt's
book is one of great merit through-
out, and well desersung of public-
attention."

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

■From the John Bull and Britannia.
"The above-named work, wherein
care, ability, and research abound,
we most sincerely hope will stimu-
late attention to the much neglected
art of oral delivery. Mr. Hunt ex-
plains simply, and advises practi-
cally; but not content, as many are,
with merely pointing out error,
.affords besides the best counsel to-
wards correcting it. In a word,
•either as a treatise on physical or
mental defect or accomplishment, so
far as the voice and speech are con-
cerned, it is unexceptionably the re-
sult of long experience and study,
and a complete text book on the
subject."

From the Examiner.

" There are many curious details
and sensible remarks in Doctor
James Hunt's book, on Philosophy
of Voice and Speech. The author
is well-known as a practitioner to
whom many are indebted for the
removal of impediments in speech ;
but his book is not, like so many
of its kind, a mere advertisement of
his own practice ; he is interested in
the subject of his special study, and
out of his real interest therein, this
book arises."

From, the Country Gentleman's
Journal.

" This volume is rich in new mat-
ter, and the Philosophy of Voice and
Speech is fully expounded by a
learned professor thoroughly compe-
tent to undertake the task. By its
clearness and compactness, the reader,
even of moderate capacity, is enabled
to seize a clear idea, and garner in
bis mind a large store of the subject
under discussion. To those unfor-
tunate individuals who stammer out
at public meetings that "They are

unaccustomed to address large as-
semblies," and who pronounce the
most miserable moments of their
existence as the happiest, this
manual is invaluable, and we strong-
ly recommend it to all classes of
readers ; by its perusal the scholar
will add greatly to his fund of in-
formation, while the unlearned will
be struck with new ideas of philo-
sophy of which he had never pre-
viously dreamt.

From the Morning Chronicle.

" Not one professor in a hundred
knows anything of the physical com-
position of the organ whose manage-
ment he teaches, nor is he aware of
the acting causes which contribute
to its failme or deficiencies. Dr.
James Hunt, for many years a
practitioner in the cure of impedi-
ments of speech has st pped
forward to remove this reproach,
and supply a great existing require-
ment. In a goodly volume he has
placed his experiences before ^the
world, and for the lirst time we
really have an authority upon, not
merely impediments and physical
obstructions, but upon the voice
itself, in its relation to its employ-
ment, and upon the thousands of
causes which weaken, deteriorate,
and impoverish its powers. We
confess, on taking up this volume,
we were at first a little dismayed;
a hurried glance at it seemed to
show that it was diffuse — treating of
subjects not immediately within the
scope of the object proposed, and
that instead of a practical inquiry
into a question of universal interest,
it was a mere medical treatise after
all. Lest any of our readers should
be led into the same error, we beg
to warn them of it in limine. It is
true that we have at the outset the

OPINION'S OF TIIS PRESS.

chapters on. respiration, tlio nervous
system, the organs of hearing, sound,
&c. ; but in the broad way in which
the subject is afterwards treated, these
chapters will be found to be abso-
lutely necessary ; and it is fair, more-
over, to say that, taken separately,
they are eminently worthy of perusal,
as giving a plain and comprehensive
insight in the physical conformation
of some of the most delicate organs
of the humaa system. * * *
The work before us is most valuable,
indeed, and in no part more so than
in that portion which treats of the
organs, which in their turn con-
tribute to the integrity of speech.
Here Dr. Hunt gives us much
amusing as well as instructive in-
formation. As might be expected.
Dr. Hunt is great in the chapter on
stammering. We commend this
chapter to the perusal of persons
afflicted. Altogether Dr. Hunt's
Manual is an attractive as well as an
useful work, and, considering it must
have cost not a little labour, has a
high claim to the patronage of the
public."

From the Athent.'eiim:.
"Keadable and interesting, be-
cause the author explains his sub-
ject clearly. Has peculiar claim to
notice, as the work of a man who
has brought study and experience of
his life to bear upon a special suh-
ject."

From the Morning Star.
" The preparation of such a work
was not a task within the scope of
many writers, for physiology, philo-
logy, and rhetoric, must each be laid
under contribution. We can bear
willing testimony to the author's
general qualifications for the labour
he has undertaken, and to the great
value of the book."

From the. Illustrate o Times,
"We do not complain of this
superabundance of information, for
there is not an uninstructive or un-
interesting chapter in the volume.
But in giving our readers an account
of the work, we feel it necessary to
state, that it is not merely a hand-
book of public speaking, but some-
thing more. Viewed without refe-
rence to the special utility of the
whole to public speakers, Mr. Hunt's
Manual can only be spoken of in.
terms of praise. * * * A mere
list of directions for the management
of the voice, together with a few-
oratorical precepts, would have formed
but a poor, dry volume. Like every-
thing Mr. Hunt has written, the
Philosophy of Voice and Speech
abounds in anecdotes. He is never
at a loss for popular illustration or
an amusing story with which to en-
liven the subject and engage the
reader. The best chapters in Mr.
Hunt's book are those directly re-
ferring to oratory, and young speakers
will find his remarks on the subject
very valuable.

From the Globe.

" We need scarcely say that on all
subjects bearing on the rectification
of defects of the voice and speech.
Mr. Hunt's remarks are worthy of
respectful attention, and the present
work adds the weight of scientific-
views to-practical results."

From Chaimbers' Journal.

" There are many iatexesting anec~
dotes, and much practical good advice
which is applicable to all "
From the Press.

" Theconcludingpartof the volume
is devoted to subjects to which the
author has paid special and profes-
sional attention — disorders in the or-
gans of voice ; defects in articulation,.

OPINIONS OF THE PEESS.

■deaf-dumbness, and muteisni on the
one hand — on the other hand, the
cultivation and management of the
Toice, and the art of elocution. Here
the author proves himself to he tho-
Toughly master of his subject — not a
mere theorist, but one who has had
much practical experience, and speaks
with all the authority which that ex-
perience gives him. Those especially
Tvhoare called upon to address public
assemblies, whether from the pulpit,
at the bar, or in the senate, will do
"well to consult so judicious an ad-
"viser. Whatever we may think of
Dr. Hunt as a philosopher, we hold
it to be undeniable that he is an ex-
cellent practical manager of voice and
speech."

Paper pok ths Schoolmaster.

"Dr. Hunt's Manual comprehends
much more than might have been
anticipated from its title. It is, in-
deed, full of varied matter, of the most
important character ; not as too many
philosophical treatises are — cold and
dry, but every page replete with in-
terest. In strongly recommending
this book as one which ought to be
placed in the library of every asso-
ciation of schoolmasters, we feel sure
that v/e are doing them a service for
■which they will be grateful."
Derby A^^) Chesterfield Bepoeter.

" This work is written in a clear
and lucid style. Most of the tech-
nical tenns are explained as they
first occur in the course of reading.
Altogether it is one of the most im-
portant works published in this teem-
ing age of literary productions. We
venture to predict for it a high rank
among the best standard works of
our country."

From the Sun.

"This is a very able and useful
■work, which has evidently cost the
author much labour and study * * *

A very useful MaDual, blending
science with simplicity."

From the Literary Gazette,

" We are bound to admit that the
Manual is a very entsrtaining, and
in many respects, a very useful book.
All sorts of readers will find matter
here to interest them."
From Sell's Weekly Messenger.

" This is a very curious work, and
one which merits all the attention
that can be given to it, and if Dr. .
Hunt meets with the re\vard to vvhich
he is justly entitled, his book will be-
come as popular as it is creditable
to his. patience, his talent, and his
research."
Illustrated News of the World.

" This is a thoroughly able work ;
every thought in it bears the mark of
having been tested by experience ;
and in thus recording his observations
and experiments, after many years of
professional study of the subject. Dr.
James Hunt has conferred an inesti-
m.able benefit upon the public in gene-
ral, and upon all vfho seek to sway
the public by the living voice in par-
ticular."

From the Beacon.

* * * He tracks the footsteps
of creative power along its line of ac-
tion, and with a bold hand, lifts the
seal of its operations, and discloses ta
the eye of science the workings of the
Almighty in the production of that
marvel of nature, ' the voice Divine,'
exercising its loftiest functions in its
most impassioned mode. Oratory, no
doubt, surpasses music ; and to hear
good speaking, is the highest intel-
lectual enjoyment of Avhich our na-
tures are capable. Superior intelli-
gence may command the v,hole of it
at a glance ; but it is as delightful
as astonishing, that we should be able,
even by laborious processes, to follow
and comprehend it; and that it is

OPI>;iO>.S OF THE PEES3.

"brought to the level of all is due (no
light praise) to the ability, energy,
and recourses of the author. That he
has treated a subject to Avhich the
whole experience of his life has been
devoted as a labour of love, and that
the rules he deduces for the manage-
ment of the voice are no en:ipu-ical
nostrums, but the plain dictates of
common sense, resting on an intimate
scientific knowledge as their founda-
tion, we might have been sure of from
the experience aud position of so suc-
cessful a practitioner as Mr. Hunt,
and he is fortunate in the possession
of a clear, simple style, which is in-
valuable in a work that lays claim to
a popular interest."

From the Eka.

" Mr. Runt has established a repu-
tation as a special doctor, the best
who can be consulted on all defects
in the voice and utterance, and this
volume shows that he is minu ely
master of all that science has yet
discovered."

From the Art Journal.

"When a practical man writes
C071 (imore, upon a subject he loves,
he rarely misses to make a book
generally interesting to all. This is
the case in Dr. Hunt's volume, which
abounds with curious details and
amusing anecdotes sufncient to make
it agreeable to readers who v/ould
fear ' philosophy ' less palatably
given. Dr. Hunt, following his
father's career, has long been known
for his successful treatment of vocal
defects ; the present book is a proof
how sound is his knowledge, and hovv'
well-grounded he is in all that re-
lates to the art."

From Eraser's Magazine, JuIi/ 1859.
" A book which should be in the
hands, not only of surgeons, but
of public singers, schoolmasters, and
above all, of preachers."

From the Medical Times & Gazette..
" A great deal of information has
been collected and arranged in the
form of a useful manual."

Colburn's New Monthly Magazine.

" Dr. James Hunt, son and suc-
cessor to Mr. Hunt, who obtained so
much celebrity by his treatment of
the difficulties of utterance and other
impediments of speech, has expounded
the whole philosophy of the ques-
tion in an excellent work, " A Manual
of the Philosophy of Voice and
Speeh. This work addresses itself
to a far wider circle than Ihe aillict d,
and we have no doubt will meet with
such a reception at the hands of the
public generally as its merits entitle
it to.

From the Morning Herald.

" The author has collected his
materials from the best authorities.
The work is one which will interest
any one who takes it up. To those
interested in the treatment of defects
in the vocal organs the information
it affords must prove extremely valu-
able. The chapters on public speaking
are at once siiggestice and amusing."

From the Morning- Post.
" The Vv'ork before us is a careful
epitome of the labours of previous
writers It is divided into tv/enty-oue
chapters, each embodymg under its
proper head all that is essential to. the
elucidation of the main subject. Dr.
Hunt's " Manual " must be considered
partly as a professional and partly as
a popular composition. In its pro-
fessional bearings he deals with those
parts of the human anatomy imme-
diately involved in the production of
healthy and efficient voice He opens
the great question of races and lan-
guages which during all time must
be one of absorbing interest to the
scientific philologist. Dr. Hunt has
evidently bestowed much care in the?

OPINIONS OF THE P3ESS.

collection of the materials necessary
for the elucidat on of this part of his
subject. His chapter on the origin
of the English language is clear and
coinpreheu.!ive, embodying in a short
space the most prominent facts illus-
trative of the subject,"
From the Dorset County Chronicle.

" Mr. Hunt has shoAvn by his re-
searches into a special branch of
human physiology what can really
be done in scientific combat with the
complicated infirmities of speech
His present effort transcends in ability
all his previous endeavours, which we
have had much occasion to praise.
And though no longer a neighbour,
for we perceive that he has for a time
relinquished his romantic marine
abode at Swanage, and founded a
larger institution at Hastings, the
volume before us possesses attractive
merits, such as, proceeding from
Avhatever locality, must rivet upon it
general attention, and elicit on all
hands the acknowledgment that the
accomplished author has, indeed, de-
veloped the philosophy of his intri-
cate subject, and has been the first
to resolve the difiicult theories of
voice and speech into a practical code
of scientific laws."

From the Weekly Times.

" This is a useful Avork. It does
not pretend to originality, nor ad-
vance any views calling for discussion.
It is, however, an excellent compila-
tion. All the information relating to
the subject of which it treats that
could be gleaned from the best
authors is collated, arranged in a
careful and skilful manner, and where
necessary, made comprehensible by
notes of the author's very enlarged
experience. Nor can it be denied
that this subject is a very important
one.

Midland Counties Herald.

" Great industry appears to have

been exercised in the collection of the
materials, and conscientious care and
ability in their application. The
matter is characterised by fulness of
exposition, without redundancy, and
clearness of arrangement."

Fi-om the Brighton Exajviiner.

"Dr. Hunt's work is of a very
comprehensive nature, embracing the
condensed results of much curious
and laborious research."

From the Sheffield Independant.
" We think Dr. Hunt has done good
service by his work, and wish that the
cultivation of the voice may hence-
forth receive more attention under
such preceptorship as his. We may
add that, scholarly as is the book, it
is by no means dull, and will prove
really interesting to those who will
care to do it justice by an intelligent
perusal."

From the Daily Telegraph.
" Dr. Hunt has published a v/ork
of very great utility, and which ought
to be in the hands of clergymen, bar-
risters, members of parliament, and
all those whose vocations necessitate
much public speaking. It will also
be found an excellent and instructive
volume for those whose immediate
duties do not bring them so promi-
nently forward. None of us, however,
can say that chance may not, at some
time, place us on a platform, and then
the study of works of this character
will not have been entirely thrown,
away."

From the Freeman.
" This book professes to be almost
entirely a compilation ; but it has
the merit — in these days none too
common — of doing well that which,
it professes to do. Various topics
connected with the Voice and Speech
are treated with brevity and clearness,
and in respect to scientific details^

OPINIONS or THE PRESS.

with commenda'ble accuracy. The
subject is one in which all have an
interest. Man can never cease to
regard with curiosity that gift of lan-
guage by which he is so highly dis-
tinguished, and if the most searching
investigation of the organization by
whicli speech is effected still leaves
the mysterious power unexplained,
yet such knowledge as can be thus
acquired is rich in interest and value."
From tJie Civil Service Gazette,
" Mr. Hunt, who has long devoted
himself to the special investigation of
Jimnan speech, and written learnedly
and well upon it, has now produced
a very comprehensive volume, which
bears evidence of extensive reading
and great care, and which, we doubt
not, will be accepted by the public
as a valuable contribution to the
library of useful knowledge."

From tlie Court Circular.
" Contains a variety of information
v.'ell arranged, and carefully digested,
interspersed with judicious remarks,
and possesses more than passing
interest. The work will be found of
considerable use by any youthful
member who is about to make his
maiden speech at St. Stephens."

F7-om the Clerical Journal.
" We readily concede this praise to
Dr. Hunt — that he has produced a
book which may be considered as
tinique."
From the Leeds Intelligencer
" The author is entitled to all the
credit of originality for his selec-
tion, arrangement, and the use he
makes of his materials, and for apply-
ing them in a way in which they
were never before brought together
in the elucidation of one connected
theme. He has also the merit of
great research and extensive require-
ments, and remarkable clearness and

order in pursuing his subject. The
concluding chapter of Dr. Hunt's
work is on ' Oratory and Public
Speaking,' to the consummation and
perfection of which the whole of this
able and instructive work may be said
to contribute."

From the Brighton Gazette.
'•The author has given us principles
rather than ih3ories, his aim being
rather to advance that v/hich is true
than that which is new. The work
is the result of considerable research
and careful study ; the different
branches of the subject are well and
clearly arranged, and dove-tailed as
it were, very nicely, one into the
other. The earlier chapters which
are devoted to the elucidation of the
physiological nature of voice and
sound, are concise, clear, and well-
arranged ; the author's reviev/ of the
philosophy of language, and especially
of the English vernacular, is fair,
practical and instructive ; his obser-
vations on diseases of the voice and
ear are valuable, and evidently based
on considerable personal knowledge,
and his remarks on the cultivation
and management of the voice and
oratory, and public speaking, merit
the most extensive perusal, for the
low position of oratory in this country,
and especially among those who, by
profession, should be orators, or at all
events, good public speakers is pro-
verbial."

F7'0}n the Nottingham Eeview.

"All who are anxious to make the
best use of their vocal organs, will
find in the ' Philosophy of Voice and
Speech " an invaluable and most in-
structive companion. The study of
it should precede all introductory
works on singing and oratory. But
those who would not think of listen-
ing to the counsel which this volume
imparts to singers and orators may
perhaps be induced to read it from.

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.

consideration of healfh; v:e predict
for this volume a high position among
the standard productions of our na-
tional literature."

Notes A^'D Queries.
'' An elaborate essay upon the sub-
ject, which we should think, must be
read with advantage by all who are
nnderthose disadvantages in speaking
which it is Mr. Hunt's peculiar object
to remedy."

From the British and Foreign
Medico-Chirurgical Keview.
'•This book treats of so many
l)ranches of knov/ledge, that a doubt
naturally arises as to the competency
of any one individual to deal with
them all. The chapters on the vocal
apparatus, organs of articulation, and
the production of the voice are on
the whole very good. The larynx is
well described,- and the progress of
opinion respecting the action of the
vocal ligaments and the formation of

the voice is accurately traced The

only vocal phenomena which are not
yet fully reconciled with the hy-
potheses are those of the falsetto. On
this Dr. Hunt has some observations
which we believe represent pretty ac-
curately the present state of the case.

Dr. Hunt's account of the voice

of animals contains a good suuimarjr
of what has been observed on the sub-
ject, and is well worthy of perusal.
Placing ourselves in the position of
the general reader, which is thj only
one we are entitled to assume in
respect to a considerable part of the
matters treated of, Dr. Hunt's work
contains a vast variety of information,
which seems to us of a less inaccurate
character than that usually to be
found in books of such comprehensive
scope."

From the Gentleman's Magazine.

" The leading object ol this bulky
treati-e is to furnish the reader with
an account of various opinions upon
the philosophy of speech. In pursuit
of this plan Mr. Hunt first makes us
acquainted with the physiology of the
organs of speech and hearing, and
sums up with simdry suggestions on.
the management and cultivation of
the voice in public speakers.
Throughout the volume we have a
variety of illustrations drawn from
numerous sources, from which we
may infer that, in addition to his
professional studies, Dr. Hunt culti-
vates the belles lettres"

London :

Longman, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, Paternoster-row,

AND ALL Booksellers in Town and Country.

Printed by T. Blower, 3, Black Horse Court, Fleet Street, E.G.

RC424E61 ^°^'^°^ UNIVERSITY

iliiiilii